England footballer Beth Mead is one of six nominees for the 2022 Sports Personality of the Year award.
Before suffering a serious knee injury while representing Arsenal in November, Mead starred as England Women's side won Euro 2022 during the summer.
The 27-year-old ended the tournament as the joint top-scorer and with the 'Best Player' award, while she also netted as many as 13 goals from 18 appearances for the Lionesses during the calendar year.
Five other contenders have been selected with Ben Stokes, Eve Muirhead, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Jessica Gadirova and Jake Wightman also in the running for the prestigious accolade.
Stokes, who won the award in 2019, has spearheaded a dramatic change in fortunes with the England Test team, leading them to nine wins from 10 matches since he was appointed as captain.
9️⃣ wins out of 🔟 for @Bazmccullum & @benstokes38 🙌
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) December 20, 2022
Changing the game.
🇵🇰 #PAKvENG 🏴 pic.twitter.com/PaQqGQp0Mf
The 31-year-old also played a pivotal role in England winning the T20 World Cup having returned to that particular format after an 18-month absence.
Meanwhile, Eve Muirhead earns recognition for skippering the Great Britain women's team to curling gold at the Winter Olympics.
The 32-year-old was competing at her fourth Games, prevailing at the final time of asking having since announced her retirement.
Ronnie O'Sullivan became world snooker champion for a record-equalling seventh time in May, as well as becoming the oldest world champion in the sport's history.
© Reuters
Jessica Gadirova is rewarded for her stunning gold medal achieved on the final day of the World Gymnastics Championships, the 18-year-old claiming top spot in the floor discipline.
Gadirova also won a silver in the team event and bronze in the all-round event, the first time that a British gymnast had ever won a medal in the latter.
Jake Wightman is the final nominee, the Scottish athlete catapulting himself into stardom with gold in the 1500m at the World Championships.
The 28-year-old became the first British man to prevail in that event since Steve Cram in 1983, while he also collected 800m silver at the European Championship and 1500m bronze at the Commonwealth Games.
The winner will be announced at the ceremony in Salford on Wednesday evening.
Darren Plant
