RTÉ Sports Person of the Year
The RTÉ Sports Person of the Year Award is the titular award of the RTÉ Sports Awards ceremony, which takes place each December. The winner is the Irish sportsperson (from the island of Ireland) judged to have achieved the most that year. The winner was originally chosen by a special panel of RTÉ journalists and editorial staff, but was selected by a public vote from a predetermined shortlist in 2016. HistoryThe first Irish sports award ceremony took place in 1985, and was closely modelled on the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award. Four people have won the award multiple times: athlete Sonia O'Sullivan won the award five times, including a record three successive awards, and golfer Pádraig Harrington and boxer Katie Taylor, with three wins, and golfer Rory McIlroy, who won it twice. The oldest recipient of the award is Christy O'Connor Jnr, who won in 1989 aged 41. Rory McIlroy, who first won in 2011, aged 22, is the youngest winner. Ten sporting disciplines have been represented; golf has the highest representation, with eight recipients. Eamonn Darcy, Ronan Rafferty and Des Smyth, who won the Alfred Dunhill Cup in 1988, are the only non-individual winners of the award. Counting them separately, there have been thirty-four winners of the award (from 1985 to 2024). Seven of these have been Northern Irish. The most recent award was made in 2024 to double Olympic champion rower Paul O'Donovan. Winners
Gallery
By number of winsThis table lists those who have won more than once (ordered by the most wins, with the earliest win acting as a tie-breaker). Accurate up-to and including the 2022 award.
By sportThis table lists the total number of awards won by the winner's sport (ordered by number of wins, with the earliest win acting as a tie-breaker). The 3 winners in 1988 (all golfers) are counted separately. Accurate up-to and including the 2024 award.
By genderThis table lists the total number of awards won by the winner's gender. There have not yet been any mixed-gender winners (unlike figure-skating couple Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean in the British equivalent). The 3 (male) winners in 1988 are counted separately. Accurate up-to and including the 2023 award.
By disabilitySo far (as of the 2022 awards) all winners have been able-bodied athletes, but para athletes among the nominees have included Jason Smyth (para athletics) in 2012 to 2014, 2017 to 2019, and 2021, and Katie George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal (para cycling) in 2016 and 2017. 2010s winners and nomineesThe winner is in bold. 2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020s winners and nomineesThe winner is in bold. 2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
Young Sportsperson of the Year2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
References
|