Beth Mead named BBC Sports Personality of the Year
"I’m incredibly honoured to win this award."
England Lioness, Beth Mead, has been named the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
The Arsenal player, 27, was voted for by the public after an incredible year for the England women’s team. The Lionesses defeated Germany at the Euros 2022 final winning the team’s first major women’s football trophy.
England cricket’s Ben Stokes was second and Winter Olympics curling champion Eve Muirhead was third. Snooker player Ronnie O’Sullivan, gymnast Jessica Gadirova, athletics world champion Jake Wightman were also nominated.
Accepting the award on Wednesday (21 December) Mead said: “I’m speechless for one. I’m incredibly honoured to win this award.
Mead, who was named the best player of the Euros 2022 and the top scorer thanked her team.
“I wouldn’t have done it without them, and I certainly wouldn’t have done it without my dad, my mum, and all my family,” she continued.
She added: “Most of all this is for women’s sport and for women’s sport heading in the right direction, so let’s keep pushing girls and keep doing the right thing.”
Mead is only the second-ever openly LGBTQ athlete to win the BBC award. Figure skater John Curry won in 1976. Dame Kelly Holmes won in 2004 but came out earlier this year. Tom Daley was second in 2021 after tennis player Emma Radacanu.
In the run-up to the World Cup Mead added her name to those criticising the event being hosted in Qatar.
Homosexuality is illegal in the Gulf state. It can lead to up to seven years in prison or death under Sharia law.
Beth told the BBC in November: “It’s not something I will be backing or promoting. It’s disappointing in the sense that there’s no respect on a lot of levels, even though it’s a game of football.”