Helen Rollason award 2018 - Billy Mongerpublished at 19:29 Greenwich Mean Time 16 December 2018

19:29 GMT 16 December 2018

Billy Monger was a rising star in the world of motor racing until he was involved in a near-fatal crash at Donington Park in April 2017, aged just 17.

His little sister Bonny rushed to the scene to keep him calm as emergency services quickly acted to come to his aid.

Billy lost both his legs in the accident but in March 2018, special provisions were made to allow him to race in the Formula 3 championship - and he finished third.

He was the first disabled driver to have ever driven a single-seater and in September 2018 - almost a year and a half after the crash that could have killed him - Billy returned to Donington Park.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

For an event that defined the Formula 1 season, it’s hard to look past the Italian Grand Prix. The Ferrari drivers qualified the ‘wrong’ way around, raced through the first few corners, Sebastian Vettel left Lewis Hamilton a gap, and the Mercedes driver grabbed it.

Vettel spun as Hamilton passed him, and Hamilton went on to drive a brilliant race to take a victory that should have been Vettel’s, had Ferrari run their weekend better. It’s debatable, given the strength of Hamilton’s second half of the season, whether Vettel could have beaten him even with a flawless year.

But his and Ferrari’s mistakes certainly made it easier than it should have been. And Monza summed all that up neatly.

British Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have known each other since they were little and used to race in their go-karts. They have always been super competitive and in 2000 they went into a restaurant to race each other in who could eat their pizza quickest. It’s still unknown to this day who won. What I really want to know is what pizza they opted for…

Two-time Olympic skeleton gold medalist Lizzy Yarnold says she had to overcome challenges before she could succeed in Pyeongchang:

"Even though it looks like a very physical game, it's more of a mental game.

"Leading up to the second Olympics, there were so many moments when I didn't believe in myself.

"Luckily I had people around me who believed in me when I didn't myself.

"The competition itself is so high pressured and I have to perform, I have to get it right.

"I love that. That's the challenge."

Image source, BBC Sport

Tonight's shortlist has been put together by a mix of journalists, former athletes and BBC executives:

• Sir Chris Hoy (former Olympian & Spoty winner)
• Barry McGuigan (Former boxer & Spoty winner)
• Amy Williams (former Olympian & Spoty nominee)
• Caroline Barker (Broadcaster)
• Alex Scott (former footballer & broadcaster)
• Emma Boggis (chief executive, Sport & Recreation Alliance)
• Claire Tolley (sport features editor, Guardian)
• David Gurney (sports editor, Metro Newspapers)
• Howard Wheatcroft (group head of sport, Express Newspapers)
• Barbara Slater (Director, BBC Sport)
• Philip Bernie (Head of TV Sport, BBC Sport)
• Carl Doran (Executive Editor, BBC Sport)

As well as the main award shortlist, the panel also decided:

• Shortlist for World Sport Star of the Year
• Shortlist for Greatest Sporting Moment of the Year
• Winner of the Team of the Year
• Winner of the Coach of the Year

To celebrate Lewis Hamilton's world championship victory, English grime artist Bugzy Malone has produced an awesome mix to go over the montage shown on the TV screens.

Malone has name-dropped Hamilton in a few of his songs - including 'Come Through' - and is a bag fan of the racing driver.

In classic Hamilton style, he will walk onto the stage to the music of 'perm' by Bruno Mars, presumably with his usual cool swagger.

Image source, Getty Images

Lewis Hamilton won his fifth Formula 1 World Championship in October, making him the joint-second most successful driver of all time.

The 33-year-old became only the third man in history to win five world titles and he now matches the haul of the Argentine legend Juan Manuel Fangio and is two behind all-time record holder Michael Schumacher.

More than 130,000 came to watch the race in Mexico City where Hamilton was crowned champion after finishing fourth in a race he only needed to come seventh in.

Image source, BBC Sport

Next up is contender Lewis Hamilton.

Johnny Sexton's overtime drop-goal gave Ireland victory over France in their opening game of the Six Nations to set them on course for a third Grand Slam.

It was one of the most dramatic moments in rugby union this year and a montage is currently being played out to relive the drama.

The montage is a reverse story and ends with the winning drop-goal moment which proved to be the beginning of their title victory. It's an idea taken from BBC's drama series Luther.

Retiring BBC rugby correspondent Ian Robertson is the man doing the voiceover.

Image source, BBC Sport

And now it's Rugby time! A terrific montage is being shown to the sports stars in the arena.

BBC Radio 5 live

John Inverdale is also covering Sports Personality on the airwaves so tune in to Radio 5 live to hear all about what's going on in Birmingham.

Lizzy Yarnold’s sled is called Mervyn, after a former work colleague who sponsored her when she needed money to continue competing. The double-Olympic champion is also known by other members of the British skeleton squad as 'She-Ra' - a cartoon character who is the Princess of Power.

My personal sporting moment? Scoring a penalty against Shay Given. It was right in the bottom corner and to make it even better, I did it in socks. Boom!

Sports Personality of the Year celebrates the best of the best and highlights the biggest sporting stories of the last 12 months.

But we regular athletes also have our own special achievements. And I want to know what your personal sporting highlight of the year has been.

Did your Sunday league team win the title? Did you finally learn how to pull off a front handspring? Did you hit your first century of runs? Or did you finally beat your dad at darts?

Let me know what your biggest personal sports moment of the year has been using #spoty on Twitter.

They are reflecting on the first part of the sporting year now.

Remember voting does NOT open until later in the show. I'll keep banging on about it, but you'll thank me in the end.

Lizzy Yarnold became the first Briton to retain a Winter Olympics title and also the first skeleton athlete to do so after she claimed gold in Pyeongchang. It arrived on Britain’s most successful day ever at the Winter Games.

She went into the final run 0.02 seconds behind leader Janine Flock, but the Austrian dropped out of the medal places as British teammate Laura Dees crept in to take third place in a dramatic final run.

Only figure skater Jeannette Altwegg and skating pair Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, who have one gold medal and one bronze each, also have multiple medals for Britain.

Image source, Getty Images

Libby Dawes
BBC Sport at Sports Personality

Well I can tell you now, there were some pretty shocked faces in this arena when all six contenders walked up on stage.

Lizzy Yarnold is now being joined on stage by Britain's other Winter Olympic medallists - including fellow skeleton teammate Laura Dees.

The only one absent is 19-year-old Izzy Atkin, who won Great Britain's first ever medal in a skiing event with bronze in the women's slopestyle final.

Image source, BBC Sport