Tour de France victor Chris Froome is nominated, as is fellow cyclist Lizzie Armitstead, who won the UCI World Road Championship.
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In 2012, he was runner-up to Sir Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France, and also took bronze behind him in the time trial at the London Olympic Games.
Stevenage’s F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton is on the twelve-strong shortlist, along with Milton Keynes’ long jump success Greg Rutherford.
One is Mo Farah, who secured a unique “treble double” in distance running having won golds in both 5,000 metres and 10,000m at two World Championships and the Olympics.
Andy Murray – Spearheaded Great Britain’s first Davis Cup victory in 79 years this weekend against Belgium in Ghent (a city most of us would associate with cycling).
Swimmers have fared better than legaue players and Adam Peaty would become the sport’s first victor for 52 years if his gold medal in the 100m breaststroke at the world championships and remarkable feat in becoming the first person ever to break 58sec for the event attracts enough support from the public. Rugby League has never had a player in the top three placings and Kevin Sinfield, the Leeds Rhinos stand-off who ended his extraordinary league career by winning the Challenge Cup and Super League Grand Final, would be a worthy pioneer.
The Basildon gymnast, 22, became the first Brit to win a gold medal at the World Gymnastics Championships, when he triumphed on the pommel horse in Glasgow last month.
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The victor will be decided by a live vote during the broadcast of the final on Sunday 20th December, and will be crowned in an official ceremony at the SSE Arena in Belfast that will be broadcast on BBC One.
