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Bradley Wiggins wins BBC Sports Personality of the Year

Last updated on .From the section Sports Personalitycomments831

Wiggins named Sports Personality 2012

Bradley Wiggins has been voted the 2012 BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

The Tour de France and Olympic time trial champion, 32, beat 11 other contenders to the prestigious title.

Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis was runner-up while US Open winner Andy Murray was third.

"I will say thank you to everyone who voted," said Wiggins, who became the first Briton to win the Tour and followed that triumph by claiming his fourth Olympic title.

After receiving the main award from the Duchess of Cambridge, he added: "We have had all that jungle stuff and X Factor in the last few weeks, so for people to pick up the phone and vote in half an hour, thank you very much.

"What a year. To stand on this stage with the people next to me is incredible. I'd like to thank my team-mates - I wouldn't be on this stage without them. I'd like to thank [British Cycling boss] the coaches, British Cycling, Team Sky and all the Olympians."

Prime Minister David Cameron posted a message of congratulationexternal-link on Twitter.

"Congratulations to Bradley Wiggins - a truly inspirational winner, after an incredible year for British sport," he said.

More than 1.6m phone votes were recorded for the 12 BBC Sports Personality contenders, with Wiggins taking 30.25% of the vote.

Wiggins mixed track and road cycling from an early age, but first came to wider public prominence in the velodrome, when he won 4km individual pursuit gold at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

The Lancashire-based athlete followed that up with two more golds on the track at the Beijing Games in 2008, a year in which he also picked up three titles at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships.

Wiggins showed his Tour pedigree when finishing fourth overall in 2009 (later promoted to third following the disqualification of third-placed Lance Armstrong) before securing a first Grand Tour podium place with third in the Vuelta a Espana two years later - a place behind Team Sky team-mate and fellow Briton Chris Froome, who was to play a key supporting role in Wiggins's 2012 Tour win.

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In total, the Briton won Paris-Nice, the Tour de Romandie, the Criterium du Dauphine and the Tour de France during 2012 - the only cyclist ever to achieve that feat in a single season.

And just over a week after his Tour victory, the Belgium-born rider won the time trial at London 2012 to take his tally of Olympic medals to seven, a haul only equalled among Britons by fellow cyclist and 2012 Sports Personality nominee Sir Chris Hoy.

Below are the results of the phone voting for the 2012 BBC Sports Personality of the Year main award:

Total votes: 1,626,718

1. Bradley Wiggins 492,064 (30.25%)

2. Jessica Ennis 372,765 (22.92%)

3. Andy Murray 230,444 (14.17%)

4. Mo Farah 131,327 (8.07%)

5. David Weir 114,633 (7.05%)

6. Ellie Simmonds 102,894 (6.33%)

7. Sir Chris Hoy 42,961 (2.64%)

8. Nicola Adams 35,560 (2.19%)

9. Ben Ainslie 35,373 (2.17%)

10. Rory McIlroy 29,729 (1.83%)

11. Katherine Grainger 28,626 (1.76%)

12. Sarah Storey 10,342 (0.64%)

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831 comments

  • Comment posted by down_the_rabbit_hole, at 23:38 16 Dec 2012

    Not only amazingly talented but a sportperson with tons of personality - probably the most fitting winner of the award in recent memory, well done wiggo!

  • Comment posted by faffer, at 00:13 17 Dec 2012

    5. markos
    "Lets be honest here. If Murray was English he would have won this easily. Him only coming third makes this award look like a bit of a joke."

    Righto son... Cavendish ('11) = Manx; McCoy ('10) = N. Irish; Giggs ('09) = Welsh; Hoy ('08) = Scottish; Calzaghe ('07) = Welsh; Philips ('06) = English.

    So I don't see the English bias that you do. Nor, apparently, does the SPOTY voting public.

  • Comment posted by User0138791583, at 23:38 16 Dec 2012

    If Wiggins hadn't won, it would be a farce. Totally deserved on every definition of 'sports personality'. Congratulations to Andy Murray as well, fully deserved. I personally would rather Mo Farah had taken the other spot in the top three, but Jess Ennis had to deal with unbelievable amounts of media pressure and excelled under that spotlight so I guess the right three were recognised this year.

  • Comment posted by HELEN_of_TROY, at 23:52 16 Dec 2012

    For 'un Brittanique' to win 'le Tour' is 'absolument magnifique' and deserves congratulations.
    Still, in this house of Mo Farah fans, there was disappointmant that Mo was not even in the top three.

  • Comment posted by HELEN_of_TROY, at 10:34 17 Dec 2012

    Murray got 14.17% of the vote. Given that Scots make up only 8.5 % of the UK population, many 'biased' English voters must have supported him.
    Now will the whiners just shut up?

  • Comment posted by User0335001364, at 23:45 16 Dec 2012

    Anyone thinking Wiggins wasn't going to win that doesn't really understand the scale of his achievements this year. Thought Murray was going to come second and Farah third but i think Mo blew it when he failed to spot that he had three daughters. From the look on the older one's face he was in for a rollicking when he got home..!

  • Comment posted by User0270620449, at 23:58 16 Dec 2012

    Fair Play to thr BBC tonight for mentioning Paudie O Se as one of the sports stars who recently passed away.He was a legend in Gaelic Football.

  • Comment posted by More Like It, at 23:50 16 Dec 2012

    Fully delighted to see Wiggo win, fantastic. Also Jessica Ennis 2nd & Andy Murray 3rd, who can argue - except for Mo farah of course who could have won himself!

    Such a strong year, puts the ridiculous campaign winners from 2009 & 2010 to shame

  • Comment posted by User0321841988, at 00:46 17 Dec 2012

    Well done to Wiggo and loved the way he accepted the trophy, barely acknowledging the Royal Wife and Goldenballs, well done that lad!

  • Comment posted by User0471589893, at 23:48 16 Dec 2012

    Deserved winner, actually has a personality unlike a lot of the previous winners. As for the show itself, another half an hour would have improved it greatly, it felt a bit cluttered.

  • Comment posted by Chels_or_else, at 23:37 16 Dec 2012

    congrats to Wiggo. Everyone should be proud though. What a year for British sport

  • Comment posted by Ian, at 23:46 16 Dec 2012

    Disgusted at some of the negative comments on here already.
    Well done Wiggo, well done all of you!!

  • Comment posted by User0924412921, at 01:37 17 Dec 2012

    @108 English bias??? Last year's winner Mark Cavendish (Isle of Man), before that Tony McCoy (Northern Ireland), before that Ryan Giggs (Wales), before that Chris Hoy (Scotland). So just calm down alright?? Celtic persecution complex

  • Comment posted by Fred_Derf_Jnr, at 00:06 17 Dec 2012

    Great achievement by Bradley. Those who think that it was all down to his team try pedalling the distance of Le Tour in that time....

    My choice was Ben Ainslie, 5 medals in 5 olympics and 4 of them Gold. Not bad for someone who is only able to compete for 1 medal per games.

  • Comment posted by Whiteowl, at 23:41 16 Dec 2012

    Congratulations to Bradley. A tough year to do well in. In any other year, all of the top three would have won.

  • Comment posted by Daemy, at 00:28 17 Dec 2012

    OMG!
    I can't believe how pathetic some of these comments are...
    "xxx should have won", or "so & so should have won"..
    none of these commentors could even come close to any of them.
    Unfortunately, in any race there can be only on winner; in this case the British public chose Wiggins, but really they are all fantastic & all as deserving as each other.

  • Comment posted by User0227128438, at 00:11 17 Dec 2012

    So difficult this year, personally couldn't decide so I voted for Farrah, Wiggins and Murray.

    At the end of the day all of these athletes were amazing and most of them would have been worthy winners.

    Well done Wiggins!

  • Comment posted by deez08, at 00:45 17 Dec 2012

    Bob
    Give back your passport then if you don't recognise the UK of GB and NI!!!

  • Comment posted by James Wakefield, at 00:10 17 Dec 2012

    Well done to Bradley Wiggins winning SPOTY with 30% of the vote. I thought Murray would do better, though the way he fell about laughing when he was handed the third place trophy shows his humour, which might not always be apparent and probably cost him votes. They are all winners though, and nice to see Fabrice Muamba make an appearance too. A great cap to a great sporting year.

  • Comment posted by JackSterne, at 00:06 17 Dec 2012

    Personally I think Jess Ennis was over-decorated by the the media, and that's how she came second. Sure, she deserved to be in the top 12, but I feel McIlroy or Farah deserved a top 3 space more than her. Pleased to see Wiggins win and Murray grab a top-3 finish.

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