2016 - The Contenders BBC Sports Personality of the Year

The very heart of the Midlands,

a giant of the Industrial Revolution,

a hotbed of progressive political thinking down the years,

a city of canals, the home of the balti curry and, this year,

home of our Sports Personality of the Year 2016.

Birmingham - the perfect setting to end a soaring year of sport.

COMMENTATOR: Bow to his superiority!

Mo Farah wins the gold!

Oh, my goodness me!

He's obliterated the world record!

It is one of the greatest underdog stories that will ever be told.

Go and wake your kids up!

Something special is happening here tonight!

Ooh!

Unbelievable scenes.

The Brownlee brothers, arm in arm.

It's yet another great tennis achievement for Andy Murray!

CHEERING Laura Trott - a record fourth gold medal!

Max Whitlock - double Olympic champion.

It's a golden hat-trick for Jason Kenny!

Yes, welcome to Birmingham, and we need the city's size

and space, because there is so much to celebrate.

Where to begin?

With the final contenders for the title Sports Personality

of the Year, and it's a long list, because so much has happened.

So here they are - the chosen 16 - and we start in the fast lane,

as taken by Adam Peaty, setting the pace, leading the way.

He's a good lad.

Before he come high up, I used to do all his GB kit,

cos he wouldn't let anybody else do them.

I think around 15, where he said, "I'm going to go to the Olympics,"

I thought, "Yeah, right(!)" COMMENTATOR: The final

heat of the men's 100 metres breaststroke,

and Great Britain's world champion and European champion,

Commonwealth champion, has started very, very well indeed.

This is going to be outstanding!

57.5.

Oh, my goodness me!

CHEERING Thumbs up?!

You're kidding me!

I was a bit like, "This is my marker," but at the same time,

like, "Dammit, I've swum too fast!"

My first kind of ever Olympic race, to be a world record was...

You can't even put anything on that, really.

It's like nothing else.

COMMENTATOR: Now here he is - Great Britain's Adam Peaty.

He needs this to join the most exclusive club in the world.

When you build up to an Olympic final, you are going to be nervous,

you are going to be focused, but it's how well,

what's going on in here, you kind of cope with.

I get nervous.

I don't watch him go off the block.

Once he's off, I'm as excited as anybody else,

pushing him on, shouting.

Whether he can hear me, I don't know!

SHE LAUGHS.

CHEERING.

COMMENTATOR: Absolutely phenomenal

from Great Britain's Adam Peaty.

There's oceans of clear blue water between Adam Peaty

and the rest of the world.

Go on!

You can do it!

Absolutely fantastic.

Adam Peaty takes Olympic gold for Great Britain.

CHEERING Oh, he's done it!

A wonderful world record.

The time - oh, my goodness me!

57.13!

Again, he's obliterated the world record.

Olympic champion, gold medal, Adam Peaty of Great Britain.

The World Champion and Olympic Champion and European Champion

and the Commonwealth Champion.

He's got all four!

It's been 28 years we've been waiting for it, and Adam Peaty,

he's won the race by 1.5 seconds.

There's kind of nothing like singing the national anthem anyway,

but to do it for the first time in that Games is kind of...

It's just absolutely huge to me, really.

BRITISH NATIONAL ANTHEM ENDS, CHEERING.

That was more

of an emotional moment for me.

You know, that's my son.

You know, he's achieved Olympic gold.

I wished I could've been there to see him when he got his gold.

I said, "Yes, that's my grandson!"

Normally, we halve his medals.

Either my mum will have one and I'll have one.

But, no, these haven't left his side.

I obviously had that support behind me.

Dad's never flown before, Mum's never flown before,

so they were both on the plane, like, you know, didn't even know

what they were doing.

My dad didn't want to stand up the whole flight.

So that kind of support is amazing to have, especially

at my first Olympic Games.

And, obviously, they'll

treasure that for the rest of their lives, hopefully.

Let's be honest, did we ever really think that hockey could seize

the nation and not let go?

Kate Richardson-Walsh's team did exactly that.

When I look back over this year, it just seems a bit surreal,

actually, and it seems like it happened to somebody else,

like I'm watching a movie, and it literally was like just

the best ending, um, to my hockey career.

When everyone says the name Kate Richardson-Walsh,

you just think, legend.

She's someone who makes a connection with everybody that she meets.

She has been the most magical leader in our team

for such a number of years.

I find it difficult to describe her in one word,

because she deserves more than one word.

When she's on the pitch, you know that she is

going to give everything.

She's passionate about what she does, will put her head

where sometimes it shouldn't go, as she found out to great cost

in the London Olympics.

She's seen it all - not qualifying for Athens,

to winning gold in Rio 12 years later.

COMMENTATOR: Here we go, a gold medal on the line...

Going into that final, and throughout that final,

we were in the moment.

It went up and down.

You know, we scored first...

COMMENTATOR: Great Britain are in front.

Lily Owsley strikes!

Then they went goals up.

It's a goal for the Netherlands, 2-1 in front.

You know, it was so up and down.

Crista Cullen brings Great Britain level!

And it's so easy to...to think, you know, when you go a goal up,

"Oh, my God, we're going to win!"

And the Dutch lead by three goals to two.

They've scored!

Great Britain are level!

Staying in the moment was so key, right up until the end

and into the penalties as well.

3-3 at the end of normal time.

Penalties to follow.

Kate was talking to us and telling us, you know,

"Keep believing, stay together, stay tight.

"Whatever happens in the shoot-out, we stick together," and we truly

believed that we're going to come out and win.

That's the golden goal!

Great Britain have won the Olympic gold medal!

The hockey history makers!

Every emotion that I felt over the last 17 years just

came out in a rush and, to be honest, I still don't think

it's sunk in, and I'm not sure it ever will.

It culminated into that amazing, euphoric moment of her standing

on the podium, kissing her medal that everybody saw.

People that would never normally tune in to hockey, you know,

switched on and supported us.

She's someone that's known outside of our sport now,

and I'd like to think that people enjoyed watching us in Rio,

not just for the performance, but how we were as a team,

and I think Kate's very much been integral to that sense of team.

She's inspired me to be a better athlete every day,

and now I won't have her here to be able to be like, "That's

what I want to be like when I get older," cos now I am older,

so I've got to be that person myself, so, yeah,

we're all going to miss her.

'When I look back at my career now, I think I'm emotional, still.

'It's given me impetus and purpose and I will forever be grateful.'

To leave that behind is really emotional, yeah.

More tears in the world of triathlon, as the Brownlee

brothers made us all a little more emotional, led by elder

brother Alistair.

His pedigree now is there for everybody to see.

His best quality is incredible determination.

Everything he does, he believes in everything he does 100%.

Even if he wasn't a professional sportsperson, if he did something

else, he'd still spend almost every day cycling around the lanes of

Yorkshire and running on the moors.

This year has been my best year, in terms of personal

achievement for me.

Obviously, London was very, very special, but I think Rio,

to me, felt very different and then, it being a bit more of a personal

struggle to get there, coping with my injuries and pulling

it off on the day.

It just made the level of the achievement

for me really special.

COMMENTATOR: Alistair Brownlee is cruising through the final stages

of this Olympic triathlon.

This is the point where I kind of allow myself to think,

"Yeah, I've won this now, which is nice," and I'm having

a nice little jog here, enjoying it.

It will be a glorious golden double for Alistair Brownlee -

the Olympic triathlon champion for the second time!

And Jonny finishes just a handful of seconds behind.

I think I say, "We've done it, well done."

Well, that's what we think we said.

We're not entirely sure, are we?

But we're just having a nice little lie down in the sun.

Fantastic scenes here at Copacabana.

You could see relief on Alistair's and Jonathan's face coming in,

and the way they laid on the ground, you could just tell that,

at that moment, they knew that that four years were worth it.

I think it's actually a bit more interesting in that way

to talk about London, how you can win an Olympic gold

medal and be slightly disappointed that your brother's only come third

and then, in Rio, obviously to win an Olympic gold medal and then just

the day to be complete, really, that my brother came second.

COMMENTATOR: Jonny has to win to be sure of taking the title.

And then it all went wrong, and I absolutely hate watching this!

Oh, goodness me!

This is a horrible sight!

I come straight round the corner and I've got literally a second

to make this decision and try to grab you.

I think you can mouth-read what I said there.

Yeah.

Which we won't repeat!

The Brownlee brothers, arm in arm.

At this point, I remember absolutely hating you, thinking,

"Just leave me alone, I'm quite happy to have a sit down."

And Alistair is having to drag him across the line

and pushing him home, pushing him home for second!

ALISTAIR: It's not a very pleasant thing to watch back.

I went to bed that night a bit stressed, really,

and wake up the next morning and there's just this

incredible reaction to it, by far more significant

than anything I've ever done in a sporting context.

It's heart-warming, I think, more than anything.

It makes you think of your family, it makes you think about your

relationship with your brothers and how that is, and I think,

regardless of sport, it was just a fantastic moment

to watch and you couldn't help but be moved by it.

Well, I was!

I was kind of a victim in the whole thing.

It was Alistair who was the one who was really being thought

of as sharing kindness and human kindness and brotherly love

and looking after your brother.

Obviously, to be part of that, I'm incredibly honoured.

COMMENTATOR: He is the finest triathlete we've ever seen.

I don't get...or I don't like to admit getting

emotional about a lot.

I like to think I'm a bit of an emotionally-stunted Northerner.

I've achieved far more than I ever thought or even dreamed

or set out to achieve.

Maybe I'll be reminding people a lot more when I'm older!

If this were the Sports COUPLE of the Year, it

would be easy - the Kennys.

Stop eating grass!

Here's one half of the golden couple and when she was still Laura Trott,

she was our most successful woman ever at the Olympics.

2016 has been the best year of my life so far.

It's honestly been so much more than I could ever have hoped for.

Everything that we'd hoped would happen has happened,

right from the World Championships, through to Rio, and then,

of course, the wedding.

We have quite a unique experience, a quite special one,

where we get to experience it and go through it together.

They're both very individual characters.

Yes, together, they're a very strong team, and they've got a ridiculous

amount of gold between them, but they're both quite

independent creatures.

Laura's authentic.

She hasn't got an angle.

She's just out there to enjoy herself, to ride her bike,

to be the best she can be.

She gives off this sort of, um, contagious sort

of enthusiasm, if you like.

It's just difficult not to pick that up!

She's just got so much energy!

She has had to cope with a lot of changes, because she was born

four weeks before she was actually due, and then, she had a collapsed

lung and she went straight over into special care.

From there, she was like this fighting person.

Whatever was in her way, she was going to actually fight for it.

She's carried that on through cycling, you know.

It's given her a determination, and I dare say that's

all part of the DNA that's put her where she is.

CHRIS HOY: Laura kind of burst onto the scene in 2012 and to win

double gold in London, her first Games, in front of a home

crowd, it was sensational, it was incredible, and I think

the big question was, could she replicate that

amazing performance in Rio?

And the answer was obviously yes.

COMMENTATOR: Gold for Great Britain!

They've smashed the world record.

Out of this world!

We looked up after that and it said "world record", I was like,

"I can't believe we've just done that."

Those girls, honestly, they're your family

for a long period of time.

So, for it all to come together, it felt like I'd been riding

with my sisters for that event.

It's nice to have shared experiences with Laura over these four years.

She's got a presence about her.

Everyone respects her.

You'd imagine, cos she's quite small, other people

could push her around on the track.

But she doesn't let that happen at all.

She really does hold her own.

Her bike-handling skills and the way she manoeuvres,

she can get through any small little gap in track racing,

as well as anybody in the sport.

She makes it look really easy, but obviously I know it isn't.

I know she works hard.

I think that's the thing as well.

Once you start getting four or five or six, you think, "Oh,

just one more," but it's not just one more.

It's really hard just to win one gold medal, you know.

So it's not easy.

COMMENTATOR: It is a special, special Olympic moment

for Great Britain - Laura Trott is Britain's

most successful female Olympian of all time,

a record fourth gold medal.

They put the graphic up on the screen, and there's

Sir Chris, there's Jason, there's Sir Bradley,

Sir Matthew Pinsent, and then there's Laura Trott.

HE LAUGHS.

And you think, "Hold on!"

These are huge Olympians, and she's up there with them.

It just still sounds kind of surreal, because I just feel like

that eight-year-old riding round.

And I know, like, obviously, four gold medals is

a massive deal but - I don't know - to me,

I still feel like Laura, so it doesn't seem like that

belongs with me.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING.

The Olympic Games -

they come, they sparkle and then they're gone.

Sports and sports stars have their seasons, courses

and tours, but they cannot be making headlines for 12 months of the year.

Well, not normally.

But one tennis player had a year like no other,

and it's not as if the other years had been quiet.

Andy Murray started 2016 in style and simply never stopped -

on court, off court.

Andy Murray has a new title to add to his list of achievements - Dad.

He's obviously really excited to become a dad for the first time.

Throughout the year, I'm more stable, like,

emotionally after matches.

I just feel a bit more...

a little bit more level-headed.

I'm not stressed kind of about...

the outcome of matches or tournaments now,

which is allowing me to deal with things probably

a little bit better, seeing things from a slightly

different perspective.

'He's a very hands-on dad when he can be'.

As soon as his tennis is finished with,

he wants to get back home to his young family, and that's great.

Absolutely delighted with that.

CHEERING COMMENTATOR: He's there!

Straight sets again.

Wimbledon champion again!

A supreme performance!

A first-class tournament!

To get over the line at Wimbledon was big for me.

Definitely enjoyed that one more than, yeah,

any of the other major tournaments that I've won.

I just see him holding the...the cup.

Just, he was...

He seemed to be hugging it.

And I saw videos of him walking out onto the balcony,

just seeing him holding it up and just punching the air, and he

looked really happy, so happy.

HE LAUGHS: So was I!

COMMENTATOR: Here they are, and here he is, and holding

in his left arm, which is sensible, Andy Murray leads out Great Britain

and Northern Ireland.

An amazing experience.

I obviously got to carry the flag as well, which, you know,

I never expected to do that.

Jamie took a great clip on his phone from behind of, you know,

Andy carrying the flag as they were walking round.

I think he said that's been probably the highlight of his career -

you know, carrying that flag for his country.

The final against Del Potro was a pretty brutal match.

CHEERING.

COMMENTATOR: Andy Murray is a double Olympic gold medallist.

It's one of the toughest finals that I've come through.

Really, emotionally, I found it pretty...pretty draining.

I see, you know, on a daily basis, what he puts in,

in order to get out of it, um, and, you know, to achieve

the results that he's had.

Amazing, obviously, to win another Olympic gold.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING.

Andy's definitely number one of the world.

He's the best player.

He, er...

CHEERING.

Andy deserves to be where he is.

I mean, if you look at his results

in the last ten months,

especially the last six months, including the clay court season,

he's been very, very consistent, he's been playing, more or less,

finals in each tournament.

He's been extremely patient, and he's persevered and he's also

gotten better, which is...

That combination is hard to do when you've sort of been dealt

a bunch of blows against guys - three, four, five of the greatest

players that ever lived.

And to come out of that the better player and the better man,

it appears, is pretty amazing.

APPLAUSE.

To get to world number one is obviously...

You know, with the players I've been competing around just now -

Federer, Nadal and Djokovic - um, you know, it's very,

very difficult to get there, so it's a big achievement for me.

Being number one of the world today in a season like this is, of course,

probably the pinnacle of the sport.

Our number one Paralympian is cyclist and swimmer Sarah Storey.

Dame Sarah, for services to being brilliant.

'When I found out I was pregnant after the Games in London,

'I was obviously absolutely delighted'.

This one here, look, he nearly took it out of your hand.

Yeah!

SHE LAUGHS.

'Louisa arrived.

I was sat at home and I think I'd gained four stone'

and I was thinking, "I wonder if this weight will ever come off?"

"I wonder if I'll ever be back to my athletic self?"

Argh!

Ha-ha!

LOUISA SQUEALS.

Did I scare you?

Yeah!

I think, after London, a lot of people thought she might retire,

but she had no intentions of slowing down.

And what I was most impressed about in Rio was that she actually

broke her own world record.

COMMENTATOR: Here comes Sarah Storey, about to make history!

This is a unique moment in Rio.

Oh, and Sarah Storey's done it!

Sarah Storey is Great Britain's most successful Paralympian

of the modern era.

12 gold medals!

From Barcelona to Rio, from 1992 to 2016, and Sarah Storey

is the champion.

I think that, for me, the performance was probably

the most impressive part, as opposed to the number of medals

she racked up.

To take that kind of title is...

is something, you know, very significant to her,

especially with, you know, her heroine in Tanni Grey-Thompson.

'I won the gold medal on that first day and had to wait nearly a week

'for the second opportunity, and I was so excited that morning.'

I woke up far too early with the sort of nervous excitement,

absolutely gunning to get around that time trial course,

and then finish it off so well in the road race.

COMMENTATOR: It is gold number 14 in the career of Sarah Storey.

Sarah is the absolute, you know, beacon, if you like,

in terms of someone who's organised, disciplined, manages her personal

life, her family life, being a mum.

It's pretty astonishing, really.

Go on, then, in the water.

DUCKS QUACK.

Good shot!

She's very determined to, I guess, change the world for women's sport

and women's cycling, so she's not just happy

to do her training and then sit back and relax.

There's always something else that she does.

She's a bit of a superwoman, really.

I don't know how she gets the hours in the day.

Are there any bears?

No.

No?

No?

Oh.

Are you sure?

Is there a den?

Am I married to superwoman?

Um...

Yeah, I suppose I probably am.

I'm part of a crew of supermums, I think.

There's people like Shelley Rudman, Paula Radcliffe, Jo Pavey.

I feel very fortunate to be in that' sort of realm and,

obviously, one of my biggest mentors, Tanni Grey-Thompson,

who had her daughter Carys and continued to race,

so, yeah, being a supermum's pretty cool and I'm glad that I'm

in such great company.

Pioneers, trailblazers.

A few years ago, all Nicola Adams had were dreams, but crucially,

she had the drive to make her dreams come true.

I think my favourite would have to be the first boxing

medal, and that was in...

That was in Ireland.

That was in 2001.

And that's her first-ever trophy.

She was the first female to step into the ring

wearing an England vest.

Best memory of 2016 has to be being on the podium

and receiving my gold medal.

CHEERING.

I think there was a lot of expectation.

I think she was a little bit nervous, obviously, having

the success that she had in 2012.

'I like the pressure.

I thrive off the pressure'.

I use it to my advantage.

It makes me perform better.

So I like the fact that everything's on the line

and everybody's coming after me.

That's what makes me get out of bed in the morning -

the thought of someone wanting to take my title.

It's just me when I step in the ring, but I think

about the sacrifices my family make to help me get there.

My brothers had put up with my sweaty training gear

laying around the house!

SHE LAUGHS.

But, yeah, it's, er...

It's been a hard journey.

That's her stamp, gold medal stamp.

To actually see, you know, your daughter on one

and what we've been through, with me being really poorly

with the meningitis, from Nicky doing what she's done -

looking after me, looking after her brother -

I'm really, really proud.

We watched it here and, you know, we was all shouting and screaming.

COMMENTATOR: Nicola Adams, looking to join the shortlist

of Olympic boxing legends who've taken a brace of titles

in the boxing ring.

Just thinking to myself, "Yeah, this is it."

She's like, "I'll do it for you, Mum."

I always felt in control.

You could tell that she was confident.

She didn't look nervous or anything.

I was on the edge of my seat and I thought to myself, "Is she?

Isn't she?"

Your heart's pounding, your stomach's going over.

You're just there, just waiting to hear the name before

you start celebrating.

ANNOUNCER: Nicola Adams!

CHEERING.

COMMENTATOR: Nicola Adams lets out a triumphant roar,

having been crowned as Olympic champion for the second

successive time.

Nicola Adams, overcome with emotion, after hearing the anthem and seeing

the Union Jack flag raised.

I took myself by surprise.

I'm not a crier.

I couldn't even tell you the last time I actually cried, so...

Apart from Rio!

As soon as I got out of the ring, I was on the phone to my mum.

I was like, "I did it!

I did it!

I won!"

And she was so happy.

She was cheering down the phone.

It was another emotional moment.

She's got the "grand slam" of titles, as she calls it.

Yeah, she's got it all.

So...how proud can a mother be?

She's just given everybody that little bit of hope and, you know,

it don't matter where you come from, it doesn't matter if you are male

or female, what race you are - you can always, you know,

make something of yourself.

When Nicky came back from Rio, I saw this and I just thought,

"I'm going to have to have that to give it to her."

It says, "Dream until your dreams come true."

To me, that is, like, really, really kind of special.

If you have a dream, follow it, because it can come true.

Look at Nicky.

The ultimate in dreams that can never come true and do -

the rise of Leicester City and their refusal to fall.

The leading man in this glorious revolution -

from non-league to Premier League title - Jamie Vardy.

CHEERING.

He has got unbelievable pace.

He has unbelievable grit and determination.

Sometimes, when I start to say something, he

already knows what I say.

It's fantastic.

COMMENTATOR: Jamie Vardy, away from his man, and he scores!

It's the Premier League record-equalling goal!

Ten games in a row!

I try not to think about it, cos if you think about things too

much, then you let it affect your performance.

So I literally just put it to the back of the mind as soon

as you step over that line.

At the end of the day, it's a team game and we wanted to win.

I had family down that weekend of the Manchester United game,

and my sister came in and she said, "Are we going to do it?"

And she said, "I'm really excited."

He just looked at her and said, "What are you excited for?

It's just another game of football."

And I think that sums up Jamie's kind of laid-back

and down-to-earth attitude.

COMMENTATOR: If he scores again today, it's history.

Oh, that's a great ball.

Vardy's in behind.

Vardy's done it!

He has done it.

Jamie Vardy, 11 consecutive games!

Scored in every single one of them!

It was an unbelievable achievement.

The team came first, like I say.

If it meant I didn't score, but we got three points,

then I'd have been more than happy with that as well.

To not only play in the Premier League, but to play alongside

and put your name alongside and break records of

Ruud van Nistelrooy is a remarkable story in itself.

For him to score those goals, to go all those games

continuously scoring, it tells you who he

is and what he is.

We knew that as soon as we'd got the three points in one game,

it was literally, "Clear that straight out your head."

We had to focus on the next game.

COMMENTATOR: Vardy isolated...

Goes for it!

Oh!

What a screamer!

I think a few of us realised it was a possibility,

that it could happen.

If we could turn up to the Etihad and beat Man City, then why can't

we beat everyone else?

COMMENTATOR: A 55-year wait to be champions can only end if Tottenham

win here for the first time in 26 years.

Tottenham winning 2-0, it was very quiet.

Very quiet.

But then, as soon as Chelsea got one goal back in,

it started livening up again and then, the second went in,

and I think everything just erupted in the house.

CHEERING.

The TV got smashed - as you do!

The kind of euphoria inside as well, with all the lads, it was so nice

to be able to be part of that and witness something so special.

THEY CHANT: Champions, champions!

Like I said, I think the emotions were everything, all into one.

You will have wanted to shed a tear, but you're live on TV...

HE LAUGHS: ..so you don't really want that to happen.

But to get your hands on that trophy, when you've watched

it on TV in the past, and you've seen other teams doing

it...it's an unbelievable feeling.

He went to bed with his Premier League medal round his neck.

SHE LAUGHS.

Which I thought was quite special.

I think he had the dream to achieve something important for his career,

and I think he's a fantastic example for everybody.

Leicester City - the story that proves that nothing

is predictable in sport.

Although you could argue that we're always bound to win medals

in the Olympic velodrome.

Track cycling is ours!

And nobody won more medals than the other half

of our golden couple - Jason Kenny zoomed into

the record books in Rio.

# Give it to me one time.

# Hey!

# Give it to me two times.

# Hey, hey!

# Give it to me three times, yeah.

# Hey, hey, hey!

COMMENTATOR: It's a golden hat-trick in Rio for Jason Kenny!

He's a thoroughbred, there's no doubt about it.

He can race, he can sniff it out.

He's...

He feels it.

He just performs so well under pressure.

He deals with circumstances better than any athlete I've seen before.

Obviously, you're very proud when your children

achieve something.

But he's no different, he's still our son.

He's very relaxed about it.

He's not bigheaded.

You'll never hear him shout about his achievements.

And I quite admire him for that, as well as for what he's already

done with the gold medals.

The team sprint's always the most satisfying.

It's always the most kind of enjoyable to celebrate

as well, cos you get to celebrate with everyone.

And it's a team event, so obviously you've got

the team on the track.

But because it is a team, it seems to kind of encompass everyone.

You need everyone to kind of push to get those three guys to the line.

So it does kind of seem to bring everyone together,

even off the track.

He's a genuinely nice guy.

I think he's got a good heart.

But he's strong willed, he knows what he wants.

He's got great values, he'll stick up for his values,

and he's a fantastic competitor.

I think Jason's not the kind of person that gets

overly fazed by anything.

He just kind of cracks on and does his best.

He's cool under fire.

So I think he's got that advantage over the rest of the riders.

He said that he once got nervous and it didn't help him,

so he thought he's never going to get nervous again!

There you go.

Yeah, what can you say - that's what he's like, isn't he?

HE LAUGHS.

COMMENTATOR: Five golds and a silver so far.

He's still got the keirin to come here in Rio.

Everybody will remember the final gold medal.

It was under the most nerve-racking circumstances.

STARTING GUN FIRES.

The gunshot went for a false start.

It looked as if Jason, potentially, was going to be relegated

and disqualified from the event.

My heart's racing, obviously.

But I think mine was actually going faster than has ever been

recorded by medical science in the past!

And Jason's sort of tootling around, waiting for a restart.

And I'm thinking, "How do you do that?

How do you manage that?"

Jason's riding round.

I was just thinking, "Please, not now!"

I was like that!

Thankfully, he was allowed back in.

And then it happened again!

And it was just like, "What is going on?"

COMMENTATOR: Jason Kenny's got work to do.

He's got a gap to close.

He's closing in.

Up towards the line - Jason Kenny's got it!

What a ride!

When he crossed the line, I was just so pleased.

Like, so emotional.

COMMENTATOR: Jason Kenny in the form of his life.

It felt like a perfect game.

COMMENTATOR: Six-time Olympic gold medallist.

No British athlete has ever won more.

Every Olympics is special.

Because it only comes round every four years,

it's the kind of thing that...

you spend your whole life looking forward to and working towards.

Then it passes in the blink of an eye.

That was obviously magical, and my third one as well,

so I tried to kind of absorb it, enjoy it as much as possible.

I think that Jason probably doesn't realise what he's

achieved right now.

I think it'll probably take time for him to step back

and go, "Wow, that's...

That's pretty special."

The key thing to think about is his age and where he's

at at this moment of his career.

I think that's the defining factor for Jason, is that

he's got to that level, but he's still got a long way

to go in his career.

So where he can get to - it's such an exciting prospect.

Much less certain were the prospects for a show-jumper who,

at the age of 58, did not have youth on his side.

He's a great dad, and he's a great horseman and...

Grandad.

Grandad now as well, yeah.

He's a good grandad.

Yeah.

OK, ready?

Go!

Nick Skelton is a name that a lot of people would know

within show-jumping.

He was 58 years old when he went on to win this gold medal.

His story was incredible.

He actually had a terrible fall, broke his neck.

The vast majority of people who have that injury die.

It was that serious.

That doesn't really hit home.

He had a bit of a rough old ride down.

I remember at the end of the day he said, "If I can handle that,

"I can handle riding again."

Give her a pat.

To be as good as he has been for almost three generations now,

to actually not come away with an individual accolade,

there's just been a bit of a sense of the missing piece, really.

COMMENTATOR: Can Nick Skelton do what he's always felt this

horse is capable of - win an individual medal

at an Olympic Games?

Well, Harry came down to mine, and my grandad came down to mine

as well cos we were all down there watching it together.

And Florence, my daughter, she didn't know what was going on.

She was getting upset, because she thought

everyone was upset!

There were two rounds, and he went clear in both of those.

It then got to the stage of there was a jump-off

with several riders in it.

He was the first to go.

I've never been so emotionally drained.

COMMENTATOR: The perfect technical round.

Nick could not have done more.

I always knew that there was going to be one behind him,

at least one behind him, that would go faster.

You just hoped that they'd have a fence down.

COMMENTATOR: I don't know about your heart, Mike,

how much more of this can we take?

There were some really nervous moments as we watched every

rider after Nick go.

And one rider got so, so close.

But he just had one fence down.

COMMENTATOR: He's gone!

Nick's won the gold!

Oh, what a competition!

Nick Skelton and Big Star take the gold for Great Britain.

I literally for...

I'd say for an hour, I cried...solid.

It was just amazing.

We rang up Dad.

I just...

I can't even remember what we said really.

Just, "Well done, we're proud of you.

We all love you.

"Can't wait for you to get back."

To watch your dad do that, it was the best feeling

in the world, you know?

You don't see too many big 58-year-old men

on television crying.

You stand there and you've won, everything goes through your mind.

What you dreamed of doing when you were a kid.

How you came, how you started.

Then to finish it, bang, and you win.

It doesn't get any better than that.

Dad let his hair down like a rock star when he got that medal.

I was down the pub the day after and the table next to us,

a table of eight were talking about the old guy on the horse

who won the gold medal.

If ever a horse was going to do it, Big Star was.

Very brave, very intelligent.

Good to ride.

I will go as long as what he goes.

When he stops, I'll stop.

It's always been about what he could do for us.

So for him to actually get that personally was just great.

If I've appealed to people because of my age, and doing that

at my age, then I think that I've achieved something.

It definitely means more to him than it probably would have

done when he was 35.

It's a dream ending.

Once upon a time, gymnastics seemed to be for others to win.

Now we have Max Whitlock, and the next generation

of Max Whitlocks.

To us, he's just Max.

He's a normal guy.

We've grown up with him from...however young.

I think I've been training with him for over ten years.

He's the most relaxed guy going.

He's a bit of the, like, the clown of the group, I'd say.

It used to be a dream for a British gymnast to become Olympic champion.

Now it's a reality, and it's all because of Max Whitlock.

My gosh, that's my son!

It was an Olympics that truly is a once in a lifetime.

To come away with an Olympic gold is any athlete's dream.

To go and do it and come out with two is just unreal.

COMMENTATOR: Max Whitlock with his first of six pieces

of apparatus in this men's all-around Olympic final.

The ultimate event is to go in the all-around.

You've got to get six right routines right on the day.

COMMENTATOR: Oh, yes!

Well done, Max.

What a performance!

It was such an intense competition.

You know, there was a lot of waiting, a lot of intense waiting

after I'd finished all my routines.

COMMENTATOR: We have a bronze in the gymnastics.

To actually go and get that medal probably meant just as much,

if not more, than the gold medals.

The day of the individual finals, Max Whitlock was in two of them.

The hardest floor final that anyone on the planet has ever seen.

And you often see him before he starts, and he just

takes this breath.

And this air of calm that just comes across the whole arena.

And he goes.

He nails it.

And then he sits down, and then the next gymnast goes.

And then the next gymnast goes.

And no-one could beat him.

It got to the last gymnast to go up, and he takes a little stumble.

And we all looked at each other in the commentary box,

and we knew that Max Whitlock had become Olympic champion.

Your heart is just pounding, and it's just so fantastic

to be in that arena.

I just tapped him on the shoulder and I said, "Max", and he looked up.

I said, "You're Olympic champion!"

And he just burst into tears.

That was the first time that we've really had a big emotional moment.

And it wasn't even pommel horse, it was floor.

I mean, I couldn't believe it.

I couldn't believe it!

It was mental to watch someone that you knew achieve

something so amazing.

Me and my husband just looked at each other and sort

of shed a few tears.

Then we sort of thought, "Is this...

Did this really happen?"

I sat with my medal for a couple of minutes

trying to make it sink in.

I wrapped it up, gave it to Scott, and that was sort of job done,

move onto the next one.

COMMENTATOR: Max Whitlock, recently crowned floor Olympic champion.

His chance now on pommel horse.

The place was erupting.

You've trained that long, that many years, that many hours

in the gym to get to that position.

COMMENTATOR: Max Whitlock has done everything he can.

For it to be good enough and go clean is just unbelievable.

COMMENTATOR: Max Whitlock - double Olympic champion!

When you look at true champions, they are not people that follow.

They are people that show others what is possible.

I'm just very, very proud of him.

And...I love him so much!

Showing what can be done.

Refusing to accept that your career in sport has ended.

Adapting.

Blossoming.

Meet Kadeena Cox.

I was at a competition and I was suffering with weakness

in my right arm and right leg, and disturbed speech.

The next day, I was diagnosed with a stroke, which for any

23-year-old is a diagnosis you just don't expect.

My whole world had come crashing down.

I woke up one morning with what was just a small burning

sensation in my arms.

She said, "Mum, I'm burning, "my legs."

And I'm like, "What's wrong?"

She said she can't feel her hand.

I'm like, "Oh, no, not another stroke."

I spent the next couple of days in the hospital before I got

a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.

I don't like to think back about that day.

I just feared that I was going to lose my independence and no

longer be able to do what I wanted to do.

My first thing to the doctor, "Will she be able to run again?"

And he said to me...

"Why not?"

And for me, that was OK, cos I knew she would get up again.

She just kind of always reminded me that things were going to be OK.

She just encouraged me to keep doing what was going to make me happy

and get me through it.

So, yeah, she is my absolute rock, bless her.

To see her run again...

I can't really describe it.

I can't...

It was very difficult for me to hold back the tears that day when I see

she start doing something she loved again.

Even though she was in so much pain when she finished.

But it was like, nothing mattered, she could run again.

I was cute.

Yeah.

Thanks!

I knew she really want to represent her country.

That's something always been in her.

So, for me, in myself, I wasn't too certain.

But I know that she was certain that she got to get up.

I had told Kadeena, 2014 Kadeena, that she was going to

be on a plane to Rio.

And had I not had a genuine hope of doing that, I wouldn't have

been able to achieve it.

You've got to believe you're going to do something,

otherwise it's very, very hard to achieve it.

Rio was wonderful.

The race was...oh!

COMMENTATOR: This is an incredible ride from Kadeena Cox.

And now it is a huge gold medal with a brand-new world record!

Anyone that watched me on the podium, seeing me kind

of smiling and dancing, and then crying.

Then smiling!

It was emotional, but...it's a feeling you just can't describe.

Achieving in one sport is fantastic, particularly at that level.

But achieving in two is truly remarkable.

COMMENTATOR: Kadeena Cox, gold in the velodrome

and gold now on the track.

As a mum, you don't want to put too much stress on her body cos

I see her at her low points.

Today, I'm very proud of her.

Just a hug from your mum is more than enough to give you that

reassurance that you need.

She was always there to give me either a long

lecture or just a cuddle, which is perfect.

Every Olympic arena has its aura, its own special flavour.

But there's something about those big nights at the athletics.

Mo nights!

A champion is a champion.

Mo Farah is the best, of course.

His achievement is really incredible.

No athlete in history has ever had that longevity

of winning, winning, winning.

Nobody's done it like Mo.

Go on, Farah!

Go on!

Good lad.

This fellow has just won the English Cross Country Championships.

And what's your name?

Mohamed Farah.

Star of the future!

2016 was a big year.

To have the Olympics, it was pretty incredible.

All I was thinking about was mainly just to try and see if I can win

two more gold medals and retain my title.

COMMENTATOR: So, here we go.

The 10,000m final.

Mo Farah is a very smart runner.

And you can see him winning in fast races, winning events.

He has a great finish.

COMMENTATOR: Look at the confusion he's caused behind him.

Everybody goes, "Oh, the game's on - Mo's up!"

As the race goes on, he has a mesmerising effect.

He had a mesmerising effect on me when he fell over

and bounced on the track.

Boom - I just go down to the ground.

COMMENTATOR: Mo's fallen.

Just got a little clip there.

At that point, yes, I was panicking.

I was panicking, I was like, "Oh, my God, my race is over.

"I'm done.

"Oh, everything's over.

"Everything I worked for."

And then, back of my mind, I was like, "No, can't

happen, it can't happen."

I was like, "I've worked too hard for this."

I'd promised my daughter, Rhianna, I was going to get a gold medal.

So I was like, "I can't let her down.

I can't let her down.

I've got to get up."

COMMENTATOR: Has Mo got the power?

Has he got the strength, has he got the speed

to defend his title?

Mo Farah wins the gold!

When he finished, he was shaking.

He was nervous.

He was thinking, "My goodness, how close was I "to losing

the Olympic title?"

You know it, it was almost gone from you.

I was almost...

You almost lost it.

As soon as I crossed the line, get up, celebrate.

And then I was like, run backwards, then I run forward, and back.

I was like, "Where are they, where are they?"

My wife, my daughter, I hugged and kissed them.

Then I think...

I ran off.

My wife was like, "I don't even know if you were with it.

Do you remember seeing us?"

I was like, "Yeah."

But I don't know!

He's found the training this year really difficult.

He's found it harder than ever, going away from home

and training as hard as he does.

Who wants to be away from where they grew up,

where they have friends, where they have families?

No-one.

But if you want to become a champion, if you want to achieve

something, then it comes with it.

COMMENTATOR: Mo going for the double double.

For me, it was just, I need to go for this

and see if I can win one more gold for my son.

There's something about him.

On the track, in his mind, he's absolutely ruthless.

Determined and focused.

He destroyed everything.

Everybody!

It's hard to stay at the top, but you have to.

He is unstoppable.

COMMENTATOR: Three medals in the bag.

Is it to be another one?

Is it to be an historic four?

Mo Farah is going to get gold for Great Britain again.

Four Olympic titles.

Four Olympic gold medals.

Incredible from Mo Farah!

I don't want to fail.

I want to continue, achieve what I can.

And later, when the time is right, stop and say, "Look,

I did my country proud, I did my people proud.

I did what I could do."

And from the wild nights at the athletics, to the still of this.

Rider and horse in perfect silent harmony.

Golden girl, Sophie Christiansen.

I always want to do the best that I can in all areas of my life.

I started riding for therapy to help my disability

when I was six years old.

And, for me, riding a horse was so much more fun than doing

boring physio exercises!

With Sophie, because she's got cerebral palsy, she's got very weak

stability which means that she's not very balanced on her feet.

Give her four feet and she's better than having her own two.

She's often in a motability scooter when you talk to her.

Then she gets onto a horse and she is this beautiful, graceful rider.

She has to look pristine on the horse.

She has to have her cravate all done properly with the pin in the right

place and no fluff on the jacket, with her shoes and boots polished.

In fact, she used to give me my pocket money

for treating her leather tack for the horse, and polishing

her boots and chaps and that kind of thing.

She is not just good at her sport, she's also got a Masters

degree in mathematics.

I work as a tech analyst for an investment bank cos

I'm a bit of a geek!

But me having that balance between sport and when I was studying,

and then on to work, really helped me achieve

the most in each of them.

And also, because in my sport, we don't really get much prize

money and sponsorship, I have to work to make ends meet.

Sophie won two gold medals in Beijing.

She took three in London.

And then she took three in Rio.

She really is the poster girl of dressage.

I had a really terrible build-up to Rio.

Nothing went to plan.

My horse got injured.

I had a new coach.

It was hugely stressful in the build-up to Rio.

You know, this is the biggest event in Paralympic dressage.

So she was dealing with a lot of stress and a lot of change.

But with the help of her friends, and family, and her boyfriend,

she managed to get her head in the right place.

So when I won in Rio, it was the first ever time I cried

on the podium because I've been through so much, and I finally did

it and it was moving.

Success can be a question of balance.

New dad and Masters champion Danny Willett on one

life-changing week.

To talk through it, you realise you go through all your emotions

and what happened, and how it happened, and the timing

of everything.

Just surreal, really.

Just miraculous in how it all came about.

Danny's obviously played very, very well the whole week,

and found himself in a position where he could get

that green jacket.

He kept in contention.

He was there, ready to maybe pounce.

You never knew.

The pressure on the last nine holes at Augusta is always enormous.

We heard all the oohs and ahhs.

Someone just shouted in the crowd, "Look at the leaderboard,

you're leading the Masters!"

Spieth blew up.

I mean, he had a catastrophe in the space of 30 minutes.

COMMENTATOR: Just like that - five shots gone.

Goodness!

We kind of looked up and kind of looked back at each other.

We were kind of just like, "Huh, interesting!"

Danny found himself then thrust into the lead.

"Oh, my God - I'm there, I'm right on the verge of winning!"

To do it, he had to control himself, and he did it quite magnificently.

COMMENTATOR: This is all new for him.

I'm sure he's never experienced what he's feeling right now.

Your hands are shaking.

Your mind's racing a little bit, and your heart's pumping.

It literally does come back to, trust yourself, do what you do.

COMMENTATOR: That's a massive shot and a fantastic result.

All of a sudden, Danny Willett in control of his own fate maybe here.

This is what it's all about.

Once you get in a tense situation in sport, this gets busy.

Pictures come in.

Thoughts come in.

"What am I going to say if I win this?"

"What am I going to say if it goes wrong?"

On that day, you know, I felt in control of most things.

All of a sudden, we've gone in the last 45 minutes from,

I think, three or four behind to three in front.

I mean, it was bonkers, but it's...

You know, it's golf.

The little chips, the little shots he played when he missed the green

in the final few holes were real nerve and quality.

It was a tremendous effort.

Wonderful.

You've got to grasp those opportunities with open

arms when you get them, and certainly Danny did that

at Augusta this year.

COMMENTATOR: Gently, gently.

Well done, well done.

Now we just wait and see.

We wait and see.

It was just a crazy old waiting game.

I'm looking at the TV, well, "If Jordan does this

here and does this here...."

You're going over all the scenarios as to where you can get beat.

As soon as he made bogey on 17, it's a physical impossibility to tie.

Then I was on the phone to Nick at the time,

and I remember Johnny ran in and jumped on me on the sofa.

That was the moment when you realise what you've just achieved,

it isn't a dream, it's come true.

When you walk through the door at home, you're not Masters champion.

You're Dad, and you're straight back to changing nappies.

You take the jacket off so you don't get anything on it.

Then you hang it up and just try to enjoy it.

Just a crazy old few days, really.

There were crazy times here, too.

The welcome home to Wales.

Welcome back, Gareth Bale.

They'd waited 58 years to qualify for a major championship.

They didn't want to be sent home early.

We know what the expectations are on us as a group,

as a team, as a country, and know what we're capable of.

To be fully involved as a nation is going to be

amazing for everybody.

We hope we can do everybody proud.

He started off at Southampton.

He was hard-working, level-headed.

Composed.

He's just a fantastic all-round footballer.

He's got a wand of a left foot, and I think the biggest attribute

I can pay him is that he's a matchwinner.

He is playing with the world's best, and he doesn't look out of place.

In fact, he looks comfortable.

He looks as if he's enjoying his life and he's enjoying his football.

Real Madrid see Gareth Bale as part of their long-term plans,

which is some accolade from them as well.

There's so much intrusion into your life if you're

a Real Madrid player.

You're galactico.

Certain types of characters can make it work, and it's

harder for other types.

But with him, he's very calm.

He's a family man.

He's not interested in maybe the razzmatazz that comes

with being a galactico.

He just wants to go and win trophies and get better as a player.

He was a talisman for Wales in the qualifiers and in the Euros.

COMMENTATOR: Bale for Wales.

In!

Great leaders lead a lot of times within their play.

On what they do, not necessarily what they say.

People like Gareth Bale, they lead within their performance

and within their playing.

I think the way he scored for Wales against England,

that was the moment, I think, that Wales

thought, "You know what?

We belong at this level.

We can go on and be successful."

After the England game that we lost, he was the first one to do

an interview afterwards.

Very professional.

That's when you see a true leader.

Inside, we still feel strong.

We still feel happy.

We're enjoying the experience.

We still have one more game to go, and...the tournament's not over yet.

COMMENTATOR: Bale with another wicked delivery.

Wales lead!

As much as Gareth, he is our best player, he is a world star,

he is more than happy to give credit to his team-mates.

COMMENTATOR: Wales are heading into the semifinal!

No-one gave Wales a hope, but he did.

He gave them hope.

He dragged his team forward.

He was the spokesman for that team, both on the pitch and off the pitch.

And he was a huge part in their success.

COMMENTATOR: For Wales, this is only the end of one story.

The country's greatest yet with the round ball.

It's very special.

It's what it means to the whole country.

Honestly, it's nice for us to say a little thank you for supporting us

and being there with us for the journey.

Amazing scenes, and one we'll all never forget.

The long list - 16.

And there could have been more.

Tough choice, isn't it?

16 for 2016.

And it gets even harder now, because we're going to choose one.

You're going to choose the one!

And here's how...

You can sign in or register to vote now on the Sports Personality

section of the BBC Sport website, so you're ready to cast your

all-important vote when it opens during the live programme

on December 18th.

Voting online is free, and you'll also be able to pick up

the phone to vote from your landline or mobile.

Full terms and conditions are on the website.

So please register now and get ready to help decide

the winner of the 2016 Sports Personality Of The Year.

So it's time to decide - your time to decide.

Not quite yet, but please cast your vote.

Sports Personality Of The Year is a special moment,

and a grand night out in Birmingham, just as it was last year in Belfast.

CHEERING Good evening and welcome to the BBC

Sports Personality Of The Year 2015.

Hello, Belfast!

Coach Of The Year - we're not Brazil, we're Northern Ireland.

Michael O'Neill!

To bring an event like this to Belfast is something special.

The 2015 Unsung Hero - Damien Lindsay!

Team Of The Year is...

The Great Britain Davis Cup Team.

It's been 79 years since we've managed to win the Davis Cup.

Let's hope it doesn't take another 79.

This year's Helen Rollason Award goes to Bailey Matthews!

I think you can stop cheering now!

The Lifetime Achievement goes to the magnificent AP McCoy.

The BBC Sports Personality Of The Year for 2015

is the incomparable Andy Murray!

I've worked as hard as I can every single day to try and make

you proud, and I appreciate all of the votes.

Thank you very much.

See you on Sunday.