Ronnie O’Sullivan joins Beth Mead, Ben Stokes on 2022 Sports Personality of the Year award shortlist

Ronnie O’Sullivan has been named as one of six contenders to win the 2022 BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.

The winner will be announced at a ceremony on Wednesday, December 21.

O’Sullivan equalled Stephen Hendry’s all-time record of seven World Championship wins at the Crucible in May.

He is world No. 1 and this season has claimed victories at the Champion of Champions and the Hong Kong Masters.

While he sometimes seems not very emotionally attached to snooker, he told BBC Sport: “The love-hate doesn’t come from hating the game, I’ve always loved the game, just my frustrations would spill over and it would look like I had fallen out of love with the game.

“But it was only because I wasn’t playing the game to the standard that I wanted to play.”

England forward Mead could be the leading contender for the award.

She won the Golden Boot and was player of the tournament as England were crowned champions at Euro 2022. Mead scored six goals and had five assists at the tournament and finished runner-up at the Women’s Ballon d’Or.

Stokes led England to victory at the men’s T20 World Cup and has been instrumental in transforming the fortunes of the Test side, who have won nine out of their last 10 matches, including a historic 3-0 victory in Pakistan.

Gadirova, 18, won floor gold on the final day of the World Gymnastics Championships and also took silver in the team event and bronze in the all-around competition.

She is only the fifth British gymnast to be an individual world champion.

Muirhead led the Great Britain women’s team to curling gold at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, while Wightman took 1500m gold at the World Athletics Championships.