The most visible shock during BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year show was the 50-1 outsider Mo Farah winning the main award, the four-times Olympic champion having long given up hope of reaching the podium again. But the odds are seemingly even more stacked against female nominees, with debate about the reasons why raging.

The four women on the 12-strong shortlist occupied the bottom four places, accounting for just 8% of the public vote. A leading women’s sport charity and feminist political party expressed their surprise to the Guardian that Anya Shrubsole (15,237 votes) Bianca Walkden (13,962) Johanna Konta (7,591) and Elise Christie (6,504) between them raked in fewer than half the number of votes Farah (83,524) received.  More