Mary Earps is the favourite after her Women’s World Cup heroics, but don’t discount Ashes hero Stuart Broad and heptathlon world champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson… so, who deserves the 2023 Sports Personality of the Year crown?

• Six stars will fight it out to be the 70th Sports Personality of the Year next week
• Mary Earps is favourite but golf, tennis, horse riding and athletics stars compete
• Mail Sport’s experts dive into each individual and argue why they should win

Six stars from six sports will fight it out next week to be crowned the 70th winner of BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

The announcement of the 2023 shortlist on Tuesday sparked a fierce debate around the country ahead of the public vote next Tuesday evening.

Mary Earps is the favourite to follow in the footsteps of her fellow Lioness Beth Mead and scoop the prize after her stand-out World Cup performances.

But England Ashes hero Stuart Broad also has his backers as he bids to write another chapter in his fairytale retirement story.

Rory McIlroy was a SPOTY runner-up in 2014 and is looking to go one better after he starred in Europe’s Ryder Cup demolition.

Mail Sport’s experts analyse the six sporting stars with the Sports Personality of the Year crown in their sights

Frankie Dettori, who turns 53 on Friday, could become the oldest winner in the show’s history, while wheelchair tennis star Alfie Hewett would be the first victor from a disability sport.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson is tipped to make the top three for the first time after winning her second heptathlon title. But Britain’s other gold medallist in Budapest, 1500m runner Jake Kerr, has been controversially left off the list.

Mail Sport’s experts explain why the star from their sport would be a worthy winner of the BBC gong next week.

Mary Earps, 1-10 – by women’s football expert Kathryn Batte

Few people have had as big an impact on sport in 2023 than Mary Earps — AKA the Queen of Stops.

Earps was arguably England’s best player at the World Cup, winning the golden glove and saving a penalty in the final. The Lionesses would not have made it so far without her.

Earps also made a mockery of Nike’s decision not to sell her goalkeeper shirt at the tournament.

The manufacturer has since backed down and two releases of the shirts have sold out in record time.

As well as performing on the international stage, Earps had a fantastic season with Manchester United, conceding just 12 goals in the 2022-2023 Women’s Super League and keeping a record 14 clean sheets.

She was fifth in the voting for the 2023 Ballon d’Or — the highest-ever ranking for a female goalkeeper.

It is Earps’ passion, resilience and determination that has made her relatable to the masses. She is more than just a footballer.

She has inspired thousands of young girls to take up goalkeeping and has become a cult hero in the process. It is doubtful whether there has ever been a more popular English women’s player.

When you consider Earps’ achievements on and off the pitch, there can surely be only one winner.

Mary Earps was England’s best player at the Women’s World Cup, winning the golden glove, and had a fantastic season with Manchester United

Stuart Broad, 8-1 – by cricket expert Richard Gibson

If the award is for ‘the sportsperson whose sporting actions have most captured the UK public’s imagination during 2023,’ it has to be Stuart Broad’s name on the tin.

For his endeavours at the Oval in the dying embers of July alone when, with the final seconds ticking on his career clock, he strained every sinew to consign Australia to defeat in the highest-calibre contest cricket has to offer.

Not only was he able to perform at the peak of his powers under the pressure cooked up by the Ashes, he did so with his audience in mind. Pushing off in search of the final two wickets that would seal the 49-run win, he had 25,000 people at the Oval and millions of others in living rooms with him every step of the way.

The gesticulations to the crowd — dozens of whom sported headbands in tribute — to turn up the volume, the mischievous switching of the bails. It was pure theatre from the England fast bowler.

At 37, Broad was still at the top of his game, defying his age to play all five matches in the most intense of Test series and finishing as England’s leading wicket taker.

Like all good showmen, however, he saved his best until last.

Stuart Broad defied his age to play in all five Tests against Australia in the Ashes and finished as England’s leading wicket taker

Katarina Johnson-Thompson, 20-1 – by athletics expert David Coverdale 

No one gave Katarina Johnson-Thompson a chance. Even the Liverpudlian feared her best days were behind her as she headed to Hungary for her sixth World Championships, 10 years after her first.

‘I’ve always been worried that 2019 was my peak,’ she said before Budapest, referring to her world title win in Doha four years ago.

It was no wonder she had such doubts given her heptathlon future was at risk after she ruptured her achilles tendon in December 2020.

‘I bought into the fact that it was over for me,’ she admitted.

And while it was not, it must have felt like it again in the summer of 2021, when she had to withdraw halfway through the heptathlon at the Olympics after injuring her calf.

Somehow she climbed off the canvas and found the strength to stand on top of a global podium again.

To do so, she had to beat the overwhelming favourite Anna Hall. And it all came down to the last of seven events, a thrilling 800metres, when the Brit needed to defend a narrow points lead over the American —something she managed by running a personal best.

It capped not just one of the standout moments of the year, but one of the finest British sporting comebacks in recent memory.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson completed one of the finest British comebacks in recent memory when she won gold in the heptathlon at the World Athletics Championships in Hungary

Frankie Dettori, 25-1 – by racing expert Dominic King

Frankie. Just by saying his first name, you know who it is. He’s the wizard in a saddle, the man who doesn’t carry a whip but a magic wand and is so good at casting spells that he can get racecourses singing for him.

Even by his own standards, 2023 has been so remarkable that it almost seemed far-fetched. If there was a big race and Dettori was on board a fancied runner, he made it win.

From Newmarket in the 2000 Guineas to the Oaks at Epsom in June, the 52-year-old Italian — who fizzes with excitement — rolled back the years, performing like a man half his age.

He put racing on the front pages, never mind the back, and secured a place in evening news bulletins. He has a connection with the sporting public like few others and everyone was eager to join his joyride.

The zenith came at Ascot on October 21 when, somehow, he extricated a winning run from King Of Steel to land the QIPCO Champion Stakes to get up on the line on what supposed to be his last ride in England.

Thankfully, he’s postponed his retirement. He knows there are more big prizes to collect. Sports Personality of the Year should be the first of many.

Frankie Dettori won the QIPCO Champion Stakes at Ascot aboard King of Steel and has postponed his retirement

Rory McIlroy, 100-1 – by golf expert Riath Al-Samarrai

When Rory McIlroy was asked by Mail Sport in November to put a value on his year he was less than bombastic.

His assessment: ‘Probably a seven out of 10.’ That was on the back of a season where he claimed two wins, top-scored in Europe’s Ryder Cup victory, went viral for a row about hats in Rome, and won the Race to Dubai.

For most that would be an excellent body of work but for McIlroy the conversation will always be defined by the long wait for his next Major — in that sense it was another season of near misses.

After crashing to a missed cut at the Masters, he rebounded impressively with top-seven finishes at the US PGA, the Open and the US Open, where he was runner up.

It was a very good season without being a great one and another that accompanied his considerable contributions to the LIV debate.

His performances from the front in the Ryder Cup win warrant great credit in a strong year where just a fraction too much was left on the course.

Rory McIlrory top-scored in Europe’s Ryder Cup victory but is still waiting for another Major

Alfie Hewitt, 125-1 – by tennis expert Mike Dickson 

In what is an increasingly international sport drawing from an ever wider pool of talent, Alfie Hewett emerged as the star of 2023 in the wheelchair game.

Before crowds which are getting closer to those watching the regular professional game, the 25-year-old from Norfolk scooped up some of the biggest prizes. If there was to be a Paralympic winner for the first time in the SPOTY competition’s history there would be no better candidate.

He was a driving force within the British team which won the world team cup in his sport, but that was only a part of it.

Although he fell short of winning the Wimbledon singles title, on the hard courts of Melbourne and New York he won the Australian and US Open singles. Hewett also continued his remarkably successful doubles partnership with Scot Gordon Reid to claim three of the four Majors together — the Australian, French Open and Wimbledon.

This was enough to make him end the year as the No 1 player in a global sport, and establish him as a truly formidable sportsman in any genre.

Alfie Hewitt reached world No 1 status after winning multiple singles and doubles crowns

Why is Josh Kerr not on the list? By Henry Clark

Most sportspeople have the luxury of a whole year to prove they deserve a spot on the SPOTY shortlist. Not Josh Kerr.

He had one race. 1,500m. Three-and-three-quarter laps to do something incredible. What he produced on that balmy night in Budapest was a lot more than that. It was a victory that will live long in the memory.

Few expected him to emulate great friend and fellow Scot Jake Wightman in becoming 1,500m world champion. The smart money was on Norway’s middle-distance king Jakob Ingebrigtsen romping home to victory.

But Kerr — donning his trademark wrap-around shades — hadn’t been reading from the same script.

For most of the race Ingebrigtsen was able to stave off Kerr. But coming off the final bend, the lionhearted Brit just had too much heart and desire.

It was the finest individual, one-off performance by a British athlete in 2023 and should have earned Kerr a place on the SPOTY shortlist.

Josh Kerr stormed to gold in the men’s 1500m at the World Athletics Championships

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