Lady Olympian now favoured over F1 Champion

Lewis Hamilton - pictured above with an old Scottish man and the Richard Seaman Trophy at the British Racing Drivers Club Awards on Monday - was the bookies’ favourite to scoop the 2008 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award following his successful F1 season. However, our friends at chickendinner note that Olympic gold medal winner Rebecca Adlington has jumped ahead of the Swiss driver, and now looks more likely to scoop the prize on Sunday night.

Of course, this shift in odds could prove a good omen for Hamilton as he was the clear frontrunner twelve months ago, only to get pipped at the post by Joe Calzaghe.

Do you think Lewis will win? Do you care? Let us know with a comment…

Lewis favourite to win BBC gong, but does he deserve it?

Lewis Hamilton was favourite to win last year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year, despite throwing away the world title in his first season in F1. In the end Lewis lost out to Joe Calzaghe, a boxer from Wales who is yet to taste defeat. So, two agonising second places in one year for Lewis - although losing out on the drivers’ title was, we imagine, slightly more galling than losing out to Calzaghe (and at least he didn’t lose out to Zara Phillips).

This time around, with the world title tucked into his racing overalls, Lewis is an even stronger favourite to win the Beeb’s annual award. But there is even stiffer competition in 2008, in the form of several gold medal-winning Olympians from Beijing (Chris Hoy and Rebecca Adlington offer the biggest threat), not to mention tennis star Andy Murray, who has had a fine year (see the full short-list here).

Does Lewis deserve to win the award? Does he have more personality than a daffy blonde swimmer or a dour Scottish tennis player? What constitutes personality anyway? So many questions, which you can answer by leaving a witty comment. If you can’t be arsed to leave a comment, you can just vote…

British swimmer claims she deserves gong more than F1 champ

Lewis Hamilton is the odds-on favourite to win this year’s Sports Personality of the Year. But double gold medal-winning swimmer Rebecca Adlington thinks that an Olympic champion from Beijing is more deserving of the Beeb’s annual award:

“I think that Chris Hoy, with his three cycling golds, or myself, have better claims than Lewis. I’d like to see someone from our Olympics team win it. Olympics only come round every four years and it takes constant effort throughout that time to win. Lewis gets a shot at the world championship every year.”

Hmm, not sure that Adlington’s dubious argument is going to be enough to persuade the Great British public that Lewis shouldn’t win.

Do you think Lewis deserves to be crowned Sports Personality of the Year? Vote below: