Sports Personality of the Year 2022: Beth Mead dedicates award to women's sport

England striker had guided team to victory in the 2022 European Championship

Beth Mead poses with The BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award. PA

England striker Beth Mead was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year after helping her team win the 2022 European Championship.

The 27-year-old Mead won the Golden Boot as leading scorer at Euro 2022 and was named player of the tournament.

"Sorry, I'm speechless for once! Obviously, I'm incredibly honoured to win this award. I'll keep saying it, it's a clichce but I wouldn't have done it without them girls over there, the team that backed me," the Arsenal forward said.

"Most of all this is for women's sport and for women's sport heading in the right direction. Let's keep pushing girls and let's keep doing the right thing," Mead added.

Mead's success makes her the 13th individual female winner of the award, with Jayne Torvill also claiming it as part of her ice dance partnership with Christopher Dean in 1984. She is also only the sixth footballer to win the award in its 68-year history.

Mead's success in 2022 was all the more remarkable given she was left out of the Great Britain squad for the Tokyo Olympics last year.

She now faces a race to be fit for next year's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand after rupturing her anterior cruciate ligament while playing for Arsenal last month.

Her victory completed a hat-trick of awards for the Lionesses, as the squad were voted Team of the Year for their Euros triumph with Sarina Wiegman collecting the Coach of the Year award.

Argentina's World Cup-winning captain Lionel Messi was named World Sport Star of the Year on Monday, with Jamaican sprint king Usain Bolt having been chosen as this year's recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Rob Burrow was the recipient of the Helen Rollason Award for his work in raising awareness of motor neurone disease, a condition he was diagnosed with in 2019.