The biggest and longest running awards in the sporting calendar, BBC Sports Personality of the Year, is back for 2024, with the Unsung Hero search kicking off today.
The awards return to Salford in December to celebrate the biggest sporting achievements from across the last 12 months.
Today Unsung Hero award recognises individuals that go above and beyond to support grassroots sport and physical activity in their local community, and is one of the eight awards that form the illustrious evening.
For 2024, GB’s most decorated female Olympian, Dame Laura Kenny, is the ambassador for the award and spearheading the campaign for nominations.
There will be 15 recipients of the Unsung Hero award, one from each of the BBC nations and regions. A judging panel of industry professionals will then decide on just one overall winner who will be announced live at the event.
To qualify as an Unsung Hero, nominees must be aged 16 or older and work or volunteer at a sports or physical activity club in any capacity, whether it’s coaching or coffee making. The nominee must also demonstrate a passion for their local community and encouraging others to take part in a sport.
To nominate someone head to bbc.co.uk/unsunghero and complete the application. You must be over 18, or have consent from someone over 18, and the nomination window is open until midnight on Wednesday 30 October.
Dame Kenny said: “I was eight when I joined Welwyn Wheelers, my local cycling club. If it wasn’t for the dedicated people that ran it, I might not have achieved everything I have in the sport. It’s so important to recognise these clubs and the people that bring their local communities together through sport.”
Desmond Smith was the overall winner of the Unsung Hero award in 2023. After emigrating to Sheffield from the Caribbean in the 1960s, he launched the Sheffield Caribbean Sports Club in 1986. The club is a safe haven for young people, offering five cricket teams and eight junior football sides as well as netball and hockey teams.
Since winning the award Desmond has secured vital funding that has gone towards the construction of a much-needed new clubhouse pavilion.
Alex Kay-Jelski, director of BBC Sport says: “Behind every champion, medallist or record holder are the most incredible people who have spotted them, helped them, driven them, consoled them and made them believe. And they need honouring too. It is such an inspiring award, and I can’t wait to find out the stories behind our 15 winners for 2024.”
This year will mark the first time the live televised event will be produced out-of-house after BBC Sports Personality of the Year was originally put out to tender in 2019 as part of the BBC’s contestability obligations. BBC Sport’s in-house production team (Sport Productions) won the contract on that occassion, but did not compete this time around. Whisper North, the Manchester-based Northern arm of the sports specialist broadcaster founded by former BBC Sport and Sky Sports producer Sunil Patel, broadcaster Jake Humphrey and former Formula One driver David Coulthard, won the latest contract in May.
More information about BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2024 will be available in due course.
