"This is for women's sport and women's sport heading in the right direction"
Thursday 22nd December 2022
Last night at the Sports Personality of the year awards the Lionesses completed a hat-trick when it came to awards. With them not only taking home the Team of the Year award- rounding off a historic year for them- but Sarina Wiegman collected the Coach of the Year, making her the first female winner of this award since 1999.
With a reported 70% increase in viewership (Sky Sports) and an increase of 227% in attendance rates for the 2022/2023 WSL season this summer's Euros was a changing point in football. Ex-lioness midfielder Jill Scott stated the increase of fans has been amazing and she believes, "This Christmas there'll be little girls asking for a pair of football boots and embarking on their own journey, and it’ll be classed as normal, that’ll make us the happiest.” which is shown in the latest Football Association statistics which showed that there had been a 12.5% increase in female players registered from September 2022 to December 2022. Showing just how impactful this summer's tournament was.
The main award of the night was won by Beth Mead- Arsenal and England forward- who was the golden boot winner in the Euros and made a massive impact in the team's overall win in the summer, she is the first female footballer to win this award and the 13th female to do so; further adding to the historic nature of the Lionesses' year. Beating England Test cricket captain Ben Stokes, who came second, and Olympic curling champion Eve Muirhead, who came third in the BBC public poll Mead stated "This is for women's sport and women's sport heading in the right direction. Let's keep pushing girls, let's keep doing the right thing."
Overall, the night was filled with incredible achievements for women in sports with Jessica Gadirova-18-year-old artistic gymnast- also taking home the award for Young Sports Personality of the year showing the incredible changes in women's sports in the UK.
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