Rory McIlroy finished as the top points scorer as Europe beat the United States to regain the Ryder Cup, in addition to his individual successes in 2023.

Peter Scrivener
BBC Sport golf reporter

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It’s been another tumultuous year off the course in the men’s professional game with the American PGA Tour trying to keep up with LIV Golf’s spending power. The plan was to have it all sorted out by 31 December and the golfing world is waiting. Spaniard Jon Rahm is the latest big name to cross the divide.

On the course, Rory McIlroy’s second place to Wyndham Clark at the US Open was as close as he would come to ending a nine-year drought in the majors. The Northern Irishman concluded the season on a high though, top-scoring for Europe as they regained the Ryder Cup in Rome before being crowned Race to Dubai winner on the DP World Tour for a fifth time.

Unheralded Brian Harman romped to The Open title, Rahm won the Masters to claim his second major, while Brooks Koepka won the US PGA Championship, his fifth major and first since joining LIV.

In the women’s game, the year’s standout moment was Spain’s Carlota Ciganda holing the putt on home soil to ensure Europe retained the Solheim Cup with a sensational 14-14 tie with the US. American Lilia Vu had a breakthrough year, winning two majors and she ends 2023 as world number one.

The evening is flying by!

We've heard from five of our nominees. One more to come before the vote opens. Over to the golf...

Katie Stafford
BBC Sport gymnastics reporter

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Great Britain continued to go from strength to strength in 2023, as the women’s team won European team gold for the first time and Jake Jarman claimed GB’s first world vault tile.

Jessica Gadirova, who is likely to miss Paris 2024 after rupturing her ACL, also became the first British gymnast to win three golds at a major championship, taking the European all-around and floor tile and team gold in April.

Meanwhile, Luke Whitehouse secured European floor gold, and three-time Olympic champion Max Whitlock marked his return to the global stage by winning pommel gold at the Apparatus World Cup.

USA’s four-time Olympic champion Simone Biles announced her comeback to the sport by picking up four gold medals and a silver at the World Championships to become the most decorated gymnast in history.

Lorraine McKenna
BBC Sport F1 reporter

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The 2023 Formula 1 campaign should be renamed ‘The Max Verstappen season’, such was the Red Bull driver’s dominance this year.

Dutchman Verstappen secured his third consecutive world title in October, won 19 out of 22 races and only failed to make the podium once when he finished fifth after starting 11th on the grid at the Singapore Grand Prix in September.

That thrilling race at the Marina Bay Street Circuit was also the only occasion F1 fans got to see a non-Red Bull driver and team celebrate victory across the entire season.

So thank you, Carlos Sainz and Ferrari.

3 – The number of clean sheets kept by Mary Earps, awarded the Golden Glove after helping England reach the Women's World Cup final, where she also saved a penalty in the 1-0 defeat to Spain.

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BBC One

A selection of former Sports Personality of the Year winners have been speaking on BBC One.

Boxer Barry McGuigan, who won the accolade in 1985, said: "Incredible - I'll never forget it there were so many great athletes had won it before me in 70 years only four boxers have ever won it and I'm one. Lennox Lewis, Henry Cooper and Joe Calzaghe and I'm as thrilled about it now as I was then."

Runner Paula Radcliffe, who won the award in 2002: "Hugely important to win it, all of the names on the trophy and people who've gone before you. It actually meant people filling in a coupon then and sending it off so it's a huge honour that people took the time out to do that. To hear your name announced is something very surreal when you're used to your body doing the performances whereas here you rely on people voting for you."

Mary Earps played every minute of England’s seven World Cup matches, conceding only four goals and keeping three clean sheets to win the competition's Golden Glove award.

The 30-year-old was voted England Women's Player of the Year for 2022-2023 and finished fifth in the voting for the Ballon d'Or award.

The Fifa Best Women's Goalkeeper was also integral as England won the inaugural Women's Finalissima with a penalty shootout defeat of Brazil in April.

In domestic football, Earps claimed the Women's Super League Golden Glove for the 2022-23 season with Manchester United, having kept a record 14 clean sheets.

Mary Earps was England's standout player as they reached the Women's World Cup final for the first time.

And she's in contention to follow Lionesses team-mate Beth Mead's Sports Personality of the Year success last year.

"We did everything, we gave everything and we have overcome lots of challenges. It feels really bad, of course, and [I’m] very disappointed, but still very proud of the team." - England manager Sarina Wiegman after the Women’s World Cup final defeat by Spain.

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Emma Sanders
BBC Sport women's football reporter

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It was another huge year with the Women’s World Cup taking place in Australia and New Zealand in the summer. Sarina Wiegman’s England squad reached the final for the first time but could not overcome Spain.

There were standout moments in the tournament for the likes of Mary Earps, Lauren James and Lauren Hemp as the European champions continued to raise the profile of women’s football in England, as well as challenge a number of issues within the growing professionalisation of the game.

Domestically, Chelsea fought off their biggest competition yet to retain an unprecedented fourth successive WSL title, before manager Emma Hayes revealed she would be moving to the USA at the end of the season, bringing to a close a hugely successful 12-year reign with the club.

Elsewhere, Arsenal have broken attendance records at the Emirates Stadium, while several WSL clubs set new transfer fee records in the summer, bringing even more quality to the league.

BBC One

Retired England cricketer and Sports Personality of the Year 2023 nominee Stuart Broad speaking on BBC One:

"I could never have written a more fairytale finish to my career. To do it with my last ever ball in cricket was pretty cool."

On what it is about Ashes cricket that he loves, Broad said: "It's probably the emotion to be honest and 2023 had all of that. It was full of emotion and drama, so competitive and , I love that part of it because I'm a competitive person. The Aussies bring out the best in me.

"It was really special to finish at The Oval and that played a big part in my decision. To have my mum, dad, family and friends there. Sometimes in big stadiums it’s a blur as you’re so focused but I remember seeing Mollie’s [his fiancée] face and it was so special."

Speaking about when he decided it was time to retire, Broad added: " I decided about three minutes before knocking on Stokesy's [Ben Stokes] door. I had no gut feeling. I almost felt like I had to verbalise it and I knew he wouldn't say anything. When I woke up the next morning I felt great, so I knew it was the right thing.

"I'm not 100% sure what happens next. Cricket is my great hobby, I want to stay in the game, I love watching and talking about it. I’ll still be around in the game."

"I don't know what's happening now. After everything I've been through, I had a cast on this time last year. Now I can't believe I'm holding this trophy." - Marketa Vondrousova after becoming the first unseeded player to win the Wimbledon women's singles title.

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Elizabeth Hudson
BBC Sport disability sport reporter

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Great Britain dominated the Para-cycling track events at the World Championships, topping the table with 18 golds and a total of 30 medals and then going on to claim another six golds in the road events.

Among the stars were Fran Brown who came away with five golds and a silver, Neil Fachie and pilot Matt Rotherham, Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl, Fin Graham, Archie Atkinson and Jaco van Gass while Britain’s most successful Paralympian Sarah Storey won her 17th and 18th road world titles.

Elsewhere, Britain topped the medal table at the Para-canoe Worlds with four golds, including an 11th world title for Emma Wiggs, and three silvers.

At the Rowing Worlds, the PR3 Mixed Coxed four maintained GB’s dominance in the event, making it 13 years unbeaten, with cox Erin Kennedy back in the boat after treatment for breast cancer.

The men’s wheelchair basketball team won their eighth European title but found the United States just too good in the World final, which had been rescheduled from 2022, while the women’s team were European runners-up.

We've now heard from four of this year's six Sports Personality of the Year contenders and there's not long now until you'll have the chance to vote for your winner.

A final reminder that to do that, you must sign in to a BBC account at https://www.bbc.com/signin.

If you do not yet have a BBC account, you can register for one for free at https://www.bbc.com/register.

Voting will be available by phone and via the BBC Sport website when it opens, and the number to call for each contender will be revealed a little later on!

Matt Warwick
BBC Sport cycling reporter

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The over-arching vision of cycling in 2023 for many will have been the heartbreaking sight of Mark Cavendish being helped into an ambulance, his Tour de France stage win record dreams in tatters. Reneging on his retirement, he will take one more shot at Tour stage record glory in 2024.

Ineos Grenadiers’ Tom Pidcock became the mountain bike world champion in Glentress, Scotland, after surprisingly missing out the year before. In fact most of the best British riding happened on home soil, as Glasgow hosted the inaugural combined UCI Cycling World Championships in August, where GB won 36 rainbow jerseys - including an emotional home win for Katie Archibald in the track team pursuit, a world record in a dominant track para-cycling programme for Frances Brown in the C1 individual pursuit, and Kieran Reilly’s BMX freestyle park win.

Ineos’ 2018 Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas, 37, showed he still has much to offer when he came close to winning the Giro d’Italia in May, losing out to Jumbo-Visma’s Primoz Roglic on a gruelling final mountain time trial in the Alps.

Dutch team Jumbo-Visma went on to win all three Grand Tours, including an imperious second-successive Tour de France victory for Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard, who hammered the once imperious Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia by more than seven minutes. The only team more dominant were the women’s Belgian SD Worx squad, who with Lotte Kopecky and Demi Vollering won pretty much everything.

Katie Falkingham
BBC Sport Olympic sports reporter

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With the Paris Olympic Games on the horizon, Britain’s swimmers continued their preparations with a medal-filled 2023, including their second highest medal tally at the World Championships in Japan in July.

GB’s eight medals included double gold for Matt Richards, while Lauren Cox became the first British female swimmer to win an individual world medal since 2015 with her 50m backstroke bronze.

At the same World Championships in Fukuoka, Britain’s divers won three synchro silvers, while Kate Shortman made history by winning GB’s first artistic swimming medal with bronze in the solo free final.

To see out 2023, Britain’s swimmers recorded their best ever performance at the European Short Course Championships, finishing top of the medal table – with 23 medals - for the first time. Among the highlights, Ben Proud smashed the European record and set the second-fastest time in history in winning 50m freestyle gold, while James Guy won his first individual medal in the 200m free since 2016.

600 - Stuart Broad became only the fifth man to take 600 Test wickets, ending his career with 604 as he retired after the Ashes.

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