RTÉ Sports Person of the Year

The RTÉ Sports Person of the Year Award is the titular award of the RTÉ Sports Awards ceremony, which takes place each December. The winner is the Irish sportsperson (from the island of Ireland) judged to have achieved the most that year. The winner was originally chosen by a special panel of RTÉ journalists and editorial staff, but was selected by a public vote from a predetermined shortlist in 2016. The first Irish sports award ceremony took place in 1985, and was closely modelled on the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award. Four people have won the award multiple times: athlete Sonia O'Sullivan won the award five times, including a record three successive awards, and golfer Pádraig Harrington and boxer Katie Taylor, with three wins, and golfer Rory McIlroy, who won it twice. The oldest recipient of the award is Christy O'Connor Jnr, who won in 1989 aged 41. Rory McIlroy, who first won in 2011, aged 22, is the youngest winner. Ten sporting disciplines have been represented; golf has the highest representation, with eight recipients. Eamonn Darcy, Ronan Rafferty and Des Smyth, who won the Alfred Dunhill Cup in 1988, are the only non-individual winners of the award. Counting them separately, there have been thirty-one winners of the award (from 1985 to 2021). Five of these have been Northern Irish. The most recent award was made in 2022 to Katie Taylor.

Winners

By number of wins

This table lists those who have won more than once (ordered by the most wins, with the earliest win acting as a tie-breaker). Accurate up-to and including the 2022 award.

By sport

This table lists the total number of awards won by the winner's sport (ordered by number of wins, with the earliest win acting as a tie-breaker). The 3 winners in 1988 (all golfers) are counted separately. Accurate up-to and including the 2023 award.

By nationality

This table lists the total number of awards won by each nationality. The 3 winners in 1988 (two from the Republic of Ireland, and one from Northern Ireland) are counted separately. Accurate up-to and including the 2023 award.

By gender

This table lists the total number of awards won by the winner's gender. There have not yet been any mixed-gender winners (unlike figure-skating couple Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean in the British equivalent). The 3 (male) winners in 1988 are counted separately. Accurate up-to and including the 2023 award.

By disability

So far (as of the 2022 awards) all winners have been able-bodied athletes, but para athletes among the nominees have included Jason Smyth (para athletics) in 2012 to 2014, 2017 to 2019, and 2021, and Katie George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal (para cycling) in 2016 and 2017.

2010s winners and nominees

The winner is in bold.

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020s winners and nominees