Skateboarder Sky Brown, 11, hopes to become Britain’s youngest ever summer Olympian next year. And she will be seeded for the qualifying events for the Tokyo Games after winning bronze at the Park World Skateboarding Championships in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Also this year she claimed gold at Simple Session, a senior women’s competition in Tallin, Estonia on a park course designed for men twice her size.
Boxer Caroline Dubois, 18, is a Youth World and Olympic champion and this year won lightweight gold at the Youth European Championships for an incredible fourth time. Her victory in the final was her 40th straight victory across all competitions. The younger sibling of British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois is England’s most successful female youth boxer ever.
Para-swimmer Maisie Summers-Newton, 17, beat her own world record to take the SM6 200m medley at the Para-swimming World Championships in London in a time that improved on her own world record by a massive 0.75 seconds. As well as her gold, she claimed a silver in the 100m breaststroke and bronze in the 100m freestyle.
The top three was selected from a list of ten talented young athletes including Charlie Aldridge (cycling), Caitlin Beevers (rugby), Josh Hill (golf), Bethany Paull (gymnastics), Aaliyah Powell (taekwondo), Ottile Robinson-Shaw (canoeing) and Toni Shaw (swimming).
The winner will attend the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards on 15 December at the P&J Live arena in Aberdeen.
The shortlist and winner was selected by an esteemed panel from nominations made by sports governing bodies via the Youth Sport Trust. The panel was chaired by Olympian and former three-time YSPOTY winner Tom Daley, motor racing driver Billy Monger, Paralympic gold medallist Sophie Christiansen, England Netball Commonwealth Gold captain Ama Agbeze, sport presenter and journalist Reshmin Chowdhury, Radio 1 journalist Simon Mundie and Capital Breakfast presenter Vick Hope.
They sat alongside Tom Daley’s coach Jane Figueroa; Chief Executive Officer, Youth Sport Trust, Alison Oliver; Head of Corporate Communications, Youth Sport Trust, Simon Ward; Director of Operations, Youth Sport Trust, Will Roberts; Executive Editor, BBC Sports Personality of the Year, Carl Doran and Blue Peter Young Judge, Adam Hunter.
BBC Sports Personality of the Year takes place on Sunday 15 December at 7pm live on BBC One.
