The BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year is an award presented at the annual BBC Sports Personality of the Year award ceremony. The award is presented to a non-British sportsperson considered to have made the most substantial contribution to a sport in that year. The award is decided by a panel of over 30 sporting journalists. Each panelist votes for their top two choices; their first preference is awarded two points, and their second preference is awarded one point. The winning sportsperson has the most total points. In the case of a points tie, the sportsperson chosen as first preference by the most panelists is the winner. If this is also a tie the award is shared.
The Overseas Personality award was first presented in 1960, six years after the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award was introduced. The first recipient of the award was Australian middle distance runner Herb Elliott. Since then, the award has been presented to 48 sportspersons. American boxer Muhammad Ali and Swiss tennis player Roger Federer have each won the award three times, and Australian golfer Greg Norman and Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt have won the award twice. The award has been shared on three occasions—by Ron Clarke and Gary Player in 1965, Eusébio and Garfield Sobers in 1966, and Evander Holyfield and Michael Johnson in 1996. The husband-and-wife skating duo of Oleg Protopopov and Ludmila Belousova are the only pair to have won the award, doing so in 1968. Belousova was the first woman to become Overseas Personality—she was also the oldest, aged 33. George Moore is the oldest recipient of the award, winning in 1967 aged 44. The youngest recipient of the award is Nadia Comăneci, who won in 1976 at age 16. Boris Becker, who was 18 when he won in 1985, is the youngest male to have won.
Twenty different countries have been represented by the award winners. United States sportspersons have won the award the most times, having had nineteen recipients, two of whom shared the award. Two cricketers who received the award, Garfield Sobers of Barbados and Brian Lara of Trinidad and Tobago, have both played for the West Indies cricket team. Thirteen sporting disciplines have been represented; tennis has the highest representation, with fourteen recipients. The most recent recipient in 2011 was Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic.
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