We have been contacted by British Rowing and the RYA asking our members to vote for individuals at the above awards on Sunday evening. See below the correspondence received:
British Rowing
After a record-breaking year and a long-awaited Olympic gold medal, Katherine Grainger is in the running for one of the most prestigious awards in British sport on Sunday – the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
On Sunday, Katherine will go head-to-head with 11 other national sporting icons at a star-studded ceremony in London, and needs your votes to be in with a shout of adding a glittering cherry to the top of a golden year.
‘Her sporting record is simply without equal,’ says Olympic gold medallist Anna Watkins, explaining why her London 2012 crewmate is 2012’s Sports Personality of the Year. ‘She has ascended the heights, reaching the very pinnacle of her sport… I can’t think of a rowing first that she doesn’t have!’
Katherine’s international career to date spans 15 hugely successful years. She was a part of the quad that won Great Britain’s first Olympic medal for women’s rowing (silver, Sydney 2000), and followed that up with two more silver medals before finally bringing home that long-awaited Olympic gold medal at London 2012.
She is the only British woman in any sport to win consecutive medals at four Olympic Games, and is Britain’s most decorated Olympic female rower. She was recently named Olympian of the Year at the Sunday Times Sportswomen of the Year Awards, is the current BOA Olympic Athlete of the Year for rowing, and was awarded an MBE in 2006 for services to our sport.
The winner of the 2012 Sports Personality of the Year will be decided during the awards ceremony on Sunday 16th December, with a public phone-vote to determine the winner. Phone numbers for each nominee will be revealed during the ceremony, which will be broadcast on BBC One and BBC One HD.
Figures from across British rowing have gathered to support Katherine as Sunday’s vote edges ever nearer, but ultimately it is your vote that counts.
In the words of Katherine’s long-term coach Paul Thompson, ‘I have been fortunate to witness Katherine working on a day-to-day basis with the ups and downs that elite sport brings and have seen the grace and focus with which she has overcome these challenges to succeed at the highest level. If the viewers of Sports Personality saw even a quarter of Katherine’s qualities, training and racing they would be picking up the phone and voting for her now!’
Find out more about the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award at www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/sports-personality.
RYA
Help to bring the curtain down on Ben’s record breaking 2012 in perfect style by voting for him to be named the BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2012.
Voting will take place by phone only during the live show on Sunday 16th December . The number to call to vote for Ainslie will be revealed on the programme, so make sure you tune in on the night!
In a year that has seen Ainslie catapulted from true sailing great to genuine British sporting hero, the award would be fitting recognition of his decade-long domination of his sport. Make 2012 the year in which a sailor receives this prestigious BBC accolade and put the sport of sailing on the map.
Ben Ainslie – A true British sporting hero
A sporting legend that has dominated the sport for 16 years through sheer determination, immense skill, and enduring commitment.
Ben claimed his fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal and fifth Olympic medal in total with emphatic Finn class victory at the London 2012, overtaking Denmark’s Paul Elvstrom as the world’s most successful Olympic sailor of all time.
Winner of the 2012 ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year for a record breaking fourth time
Ainslie was the first to run with the Olympic torch on home soil as it travelled across Great Britain and was Team GB’s flag bearer for the London 2012 Olympic Closing Ceremony
He became Britain’s youngest ever Olympic sailing medallist when on his Games debut at Atlanta 1996 Ainslie won Laser class silver aged just 19.
Gained his first Olympic gold at Sydney 2000, in the Finn class where he began his complete domination of the heavy weight dinghy class by taking gold at Athens 2004.
The images of Ainslie mastering the elements to claim a stunning medal race victory and wrap up his third consecutive Olympic title in Qingdao 2008 will endure forever.
In 2008 Ainslie surpassed British Olympic sailor Rodney Pattisson’s previous best British Olympic sailing medal haul of two gold’s, one silver.
ISAF 2010 World Match Racing Tour Champion
10-time world champion and nine time European champion in the Finn Class
Five time British Yachtsmen of the Year