The BBC have confirmed the shortlist for the Sports Personality of the Year Award, with England star Jude Bellingham to battle darts wonderkid Luke Littler for the trophy.
Runner Keely Hodgkinson, cricketer Joe Root, Para-cyclist Sarah Storey and triathlete Alex Yee are the other four nominees. Voting will take place during the show on BBC One and the BBC iPlayer on 17 December.
The programme will be presented by Gabby Logan, Alex Scott and Clare Balding, and broadcast live from MediaCityUK in Salford. The public can vote by phone or online on the night for the main award, with full details announced during the show.
Bellingham and Littler are likely to be the two frontrunners, following their remarkable years. The former won a Champions League and La Liga double in his first season with Real Madrid, before helping England to reach the final of Euro 2024.
He scored one of the goals of the tournament with an overhead kick to equalise in the dying seconds of England's Last 16 tie against Slovakia. Bellingham finished third in this year's Ballon d'Or, having also been named La Liga's Player of the Year.
Littler meanwhile shot himself to superstardom in last year's World Darts Championships, reaching the final at the age of just 16. While he was defeated by Luke Humphries, 'The Nuke' has gone on to claim 10 trophies, including becoming the youngest winner of a major PDC tournament with victory in the Premier League Darts, and also triumphed at the prestigious Grand Slam of Darts.
Hodgkinson claimed Team GB's first Olympic track title since 2016 by winning gold in the 800 metres at this year's Paris Games. She also retained her European Championship title in the same distance, having become just the 10th British woman to win an Olympics athletics gold.
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Root enjoyed another bumper year for England's national cricket team, becoming the country's record Test run scorer in October with a brilliant career-best score of 262 against Pakistan. Root also broke Sir Alistair Cook's record for the most Test centuries by an Englishman.
He is now fifth on the all-time list of Test run scorers and became the first Englishman to surpass 20,000 international runs across formats. The former captain has scored more Test runs than any other player in 2024.
Yee was crowned both Olympic and World Champion in triathlon. He produced a remarkable comeback in Paris to overtake New Zealand's Hayden Wilde in the closing stages of the run to win his first individual Olympic gold.
He was also part of the Great Britain team that won bronze in the mixed relay. The 26-year-old then claimed the first World Championship of his career with victories in Cagliari and Weihai.
Finally, Paralympian Storey added two more golds to her collection by winning the C4-C5 road race and C5 road time trial at the Paris Games. The 47-year-old extended her British record tally of Paralympic career medals to 30, 19 of which are golds, and came 32 years after her first in Para-swimming in 1992.
The judging panel included five-time Olympic cycling champion Dame Laura Kenny, ex-runner Iwan Thomas, Paralympian Ade Adepitan, former Manchester City defender Nedum Onuoha and Ireland rugby veteran Rory Best. Broadcaster Eilidh Barbour, sports journalists Laura Williamson (The Athletic) and Eleanor Crooks (PA Media), as well as Stephanie Hilborne - CEO of Women in Sport were also involved.
Representing the BBC were director of sport Alex Kay-Jelski, head of sport content Philip Bernie and executive producer Gabby Cook. Kay-Jelski is delighted with the shortlist that has been decided.
He said: "It's a fantastic shortlist. All six have kept us on the edge of our seats this year, showing us how sensational they are. I'm looking forward to reliving each of their successes on the night and finding out who audiences want to be crowned BBC Sport Personality of the Year 2024."
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