If the 2012 London Olympics marked us leaving the starting blocks with regards to women in sport, then this year was when we hit full stride.
The Women’s Football World Cup garnered widespread international media coverage and set a new total attendance record for the FIFA competition, Nicola Adams became the reigning Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games and European Games champion, and Tracey Couch, Britain’s new Sports Minister, announced that women’s participation in sport is up by more than 500,000 since the UK won the Olympic bid in 2005.
The multiple successes of female athletes in 2015 means that the mere mention of sport no longer drags up difficult memories of being forced to run around a soggy field, or trying to convince our school swimming teacher that we really did have our period for the fourth week in a row.
Tonight marks BT Sport’s third annual Action Woman of the Year Award, celebrating outstanding performances by British female athletes. It’s an impressive line up, to put it lightly, so without further ado, we give you a rundown of this year’s top 10 nominees.
The England Women's Hockey Team
Whatever the outcome of tonight’s awards, the England Women’s Hockey Team has already achieved one major accolade this year, named the Vitality Team of the Year at the Sunday Times & Sky Sports Sportswoman of the Year Awards. All this attention is perhaps unsurprising though, considering that in August the team beat the Netherlands on penalties to win the EuroHockey Championships, after crawling their way back from being 2-0 down in the last 10 minutes. It’s the first time an English team has been victorious in the competition since 1991.
Nicola Adams
For Nicola Adams, topping her 2012 successes, when she became the first woman to win an Olympic boxing title, would be difficult. However, after winning gold at the Commonwealth Games in 2014, and another at this year’s European Games in Baku, Adams is now the first woman boxer to complete this hat-trick of victories. Oh, and not only is she currently the Olympic, Commonwealth and European boxing champion, she also received an honorary degree from the University of Leeds in July. Her main focus over the next nine months will be working towards Rio, where she hopes to once again take home the top accolade.
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Sarah Outen
Any of us who think that having an ‘adventurous spirit’ constitutes a couple of months spent battling with mosquito nets and visiting salt flats in South America, will be put to shame by Sarah Outen’s epic four-and-a-half-year journey which she completed this year. Outen initially set out in 2011, aiming to circumnavigate the globe, almost entirely on her own steam. During the expedition, which was called “London2London: Via the World", Outen spent 150 days alone at sea, proposed to her girlfriend and cycled, kayaked and rowed 25,000 miles. Not too shabby.
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Georgina Hermitage
2015 is a year that Georgina Hermitage is likely to remember. In July, the 26-year-old parasport athlete achieved her first world record after she set a new best in the T37 400m at the IPC Grand Prix, before beating this just three months later at the IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha, a competition where she also achieved the 100m silver. Hermitage, who has cerebral palsy, has credited the birth of her daughter in 2012 – the same years as the London Paralympics – with pushing her to get involved in athletics.
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Lizzie Armitstead
Armitstead has had a pretty darn good year. Having already won the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) Women’s World Cup in 2014, she repeated the victory again this year and the 26-year-old also beat Dutch cyclist Anna Van Der Breggen to win the Women’s UCI World Championships road race, becoming the fourth British woman to do so. However, despite achieving a silver medal in the 2012 Olympics and her position as current world champion, Armistead does not think she’ll be a favourite to win in next year’s competition. “The course in Rio is not ideal and doesn't suit me really,” she told Sky Sports. “It's brutal.”
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Rachel Atherton
Atherton began riding BMX bikes at eight years old and has seemingly not looked back since. The 27-year-old became the UCI Downhill World Cup champion this year, the third time she’s won the title and also won the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup 2015 with an almost perfect score, winning six out of seven rounds. Atherton said she was “stoked” at winning both titles, and it’s worth noting that she is also one of the few people who look good in a backwards cap. Having won the BT’s Sport Action Woman of the Year back in 2013, Atherton may be onto another winner this evening.
Photo: Rex/Shutterstock
Jessica Ennis-Hill
In many people's minds Jessica Ennis-Hill is the Wonder Woman of athletics. The Olympic heptathlon champion won the hearts of the British public (who are a tricky group to please) in 2012 and this year, 13 months after she gave birth to her son Reggie, she won gold again at the World Championships in Beijing in August. Having qualified for next year’s Olympics, Ennis-Hill will have the chance to defend her title and, having won the Sunday Times and Sky Sports Sportswoman of the Year award for the second time this year, an award tonight would be the cherry on the 2015 cake for her.
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Oxford Women's Boat Race Crew
2015 marked the first year that the women's boat race was staged on the same course and on the same day as the men’s. The Oxford Women’s Boat Race Crew were victorious over their Cambridge rivals, finishing six-and-a-half lengths clear of their competition in the historic race which was also broadcast live for the first time. The crew included 19-year-old Maddy Badcott and cox Morgan Baynham-Williams who has since been selected for the GB junior squad.
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Johanna Konta
We would imagine that to leap from being ranked 150 to becoming British tennis’s new No.1 in less than a year, would take hard work and many, many hours on court. So when Johanna Konta told the Guardian that “things like this happen after a lot of hard yards have been walked and a lot of hard lessons have been learned” you really do believe her. As of this year, 24-year-old Konta is also now ranked in the world’s top 50 and in September fulfilled one of her childhood dreams when she played against Venus Williams, after beating the world’s No 2 Simona Halep at the Wuhan Open. She lost to Williams by just two points.
Photo: Rex/Shutterstock
England Lionesses
As we all know, it’s been a long, long time since England’s football team have had a notable success. But that’s when we’re talking about the Lions. The England Lionesses on the other hand have had a year to make Britain proud because not only did they achieve the bronze medal in the FIFA Women’s World Cup but they beat famous rivals Germany to do so. In fact, it was the second-best performance by an England team since 1966 when the men’s team won the tournament. And while we’re sure it’s always nice to be congratulated by David Beckham, Prince William and er… Wayne Rooney, triumphing in the tournament marked a change of pace for the team. Speaking before the semi-final match, captain Steph Houghton spoke of the team’s hopes: “We want to inspire a nation, inspire young girls to go and play football. We hope they were allowed to stay up and watch.”
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