Much controversy was caused by the all-male 2011 BBC Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY) shortlist, and rightly so. It demonstrated the gulf that still remains between male and female sport in Britain, showing an ugly reality that London 2012 has great potential to correct.

I have sorted the outpouring of outrage into three categories. Firstly, it was widely believed that, contrary to the BBC’s decision, there were women who deserved to be selected in the shortlist. Among them was Keri Ann Payne, who became the first British athlete to confirm her qualification at next year’s Olympics by winning the 10km Open Water event at the 2011 World Swimming Championships. Similarly, after her gold medal at the European Track Championships, plus a silver and bronze at the World Championships, Victoria Pendleton was also worthy of a nomination. Moreover, Katherine Grainger won gold at the World Rowing Championships in Bled this year and Rebecca Adlington remains at the top of her sport following her gold and silver medals at the World Aquatics Championships.

In my view, however, the most deserving sportswoman of a place in the shortlist was Chrissie Wellington, who won her fourth world title in the Ironman triathlon this year. The event is gruelling and not for the faint-hearted. In short, it consists of a total 140 mile race, comprised of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile cycle and a full 26 mile marathon. If that wasn’t hard enough, Wellington was carrying an injury sustained during training. I cannot see how her victory in one of the world’s most physically demanding sport was not deserving of a place whilst three male golfers were deserving of a place, one of which did not even win one of his sport’s major events.

My second point is that even if we accepted the view that no woman was deserving of a place in the shortlist, the BBC still has a responsibility to promote women’s sport. Thus it should have included at least one woman in the list to stand as an icon for fellow women. This was particularly the case as Sport England recently released figures demonstrating how female participation in sport has drastically decreased over the last year, whilst male participation has risen. In the year leading up to hosting the ‘Biggest Show on Earth’ our public organisations should be making a far greater effort than that shown by the BBC.

Having foregone both these possibilities, the BBC succumbs to a third category of criticism, namely its process of choosing the shortlist. Twenty-seven magazines and newspapers put together their shortlists of the top ten sportsmen and women for the BBC to collate. However, such magazines include ‘lads mags’ such as Nuts and Zoo, while the corresponding female magazines are overlooked. Given the decision makers are themselves targeting a male-dominated audience, it is therefore unsurprising that their shortlist for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year reflects this.

There remains a perception in sport that is far behind normal society, an unspoken perspective that it is acceptable for women’s sport and sportswomen to play an inferior role to their male counterparts. Female sport’s subordination to its male counterpart is the elephant in the room which we must address if sport in our country is to match the superior, though not yet perfect situation of gender equality in society in general.