To appreciate the transformation accompanying a fourth consecutive female winner of the Sports Personality of the Year honour, it is necessary only to glance through the BBC archive.

Thirteen women had won in the first 66 years up to Emma Raducanu in 2021 – to be followed by Beth Mead, Mary Earps and now Keely Hodgkinson – but even those victories came against the backdrop of a near blackout of female achievements.

Take 1985 – the year Barry McGuigan, Ian Botham and Steve Cram made up the podium – and you can watch back an entire review of the year without hearing from a single sportswoman who had competed.

Or go back to 1967 when the cycling community at least understood the significance of Beryl Burton’s jaw-dropping achievements of breaking a men’s world record and winning a seventh world title (female cyclists were banned from the Olympics until 1984) by unexpectedly voting her second. Her recollection of the big night inside BBC Television Centre was of being “on screen for about two seconds and then, following due honour to Henry [Cooper], the programme was filled with English football and cricket teams”.

It remained a lopsided story even through much of the 1980s and 1990s when the more visible years for women generally coincided with either an Olympic Games or World Athletics Championships. Otherwise, just about the most that could be hoped for was Laura Davies being invited to join Frank Bruno and Nick Faldo in swinging a golf club during one of the live sporting challenges.

Contrast all that with this year when Hodgkinson and Sarah Storey were rightly among those taking centre stage during an evening that also contained lengthy segments on women’s football and cricket, as well as the exploits of other Paris heroes during a Games where, for the first time, as many medals were available to women as men.

Female dominance reflected Spoty presenting line-up

Other than a lovely cameo by Sir Chris Hoy on that Paris section, Tuesday night’s programme was presented for the first time by an all-female team of Clare Balding, Gabby Logan and Alex Scott, following news of Gary Lineker’s impending BBC departure. It will be interesting to see whether that changes and, while Mark Chapman would be an obvious addition alongside his expected Match of the Day brief, it is hard to imagine the BBC ever again reverting to the all-male team that was the standard for fully 40 years following the programme’s launch in 1954.

The first female presenter was Sue Barker in 1994. Balding followed in 1999 and, while stressing the progress that needs to be made, she highlights London 2012 as the catalyst for change. The previous year’s programme had contained a 10-strong all male shortlist for the main prize that sparked protests, some boycotts and a review of the voting procedure.

“I think 2012 was when women’s sport staked its claim for equal attention,” Balding told Telegraph Sport. “The point about profile is really important. Zara Phillips [the victor in 2006 before 14 successive male winners] had a profile that was bigger than just her sport. She was world champion, a fantastic winner to have had and utterly worthy, but, unless people have the profile, they can’t be up there in people’s thinking. And it is a public vote. So, it’s really interesting that change. This is harder to establish all year round. But the profile is definitely raised across a multitude of sports.

“Women’s football is the one that has been the big gainer, but I think women’s cricket as well and women’s cycling. Where I think women’s football has done a fantastic job is creating their own story lines. They really use social media intelligently. You feel like you know them as people. They are very much going for a community, building their own community. I still think there’s a way to go in the coverage of women’s sport. [But] I think there is an awful lot to celebrate.”

It has undoubtedly been a media-wide issue historically, with Telegraph Sport among those at the forefront of enhancing coverage, particularly since 2019 when Telegraph Women’s Sport, with its dedicated monthly supplement, podcast and social media channels, was launched.

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill, who is a Telegraph columnist and was second to Sir Bradley Wiggins at the awards during the golden summer of 2012, says that added recognition is a consequence not just of outstanding performance but a deeper appreciation of individual stories. “There is the understanding of those athletes, their journeys, their personalities; people are seeing their performances on TV and elsewhere, and that is having a knock-on effect,” she said.

Hodgkinson is an authentic star who can clearly connect with a younger demographic far beyond the athletics community. She is even launching her own event next February – the Keely Klassic when she will go for the world indoor 800 metres record but also aim to put on a show in Birmingham that will attract new audiences. “I think it’s always great when women get recognised in their sports – and the fourth one in a row – shows that women’s sports in the UK is in a really good place in all different fields,” Hodgkinson said after being crowned Sports Personality of the Year.

Among the judges who drew up this year’s six-strong shortlist (including four men) was Stephanie Hilborne, the chief executive of Women in Sport, a charity co-founded in 1984 by Baroness Campbell.

“It’s brilliant to see women finally being celebrated for their incredible athletic achievements, alongside men,” Hillborne said. “For too long, women were undervalued and overlooked, even at the top of their game. As a result, little girls had very few women to look up to and couldn’t dream of sporting glory in the way little boys always have. Equal recognition of male and female athletes is as critical as celebrating girls and boys equally in sport at school. We’re making progress, but we’re not there yet.”

While also acknowledging improvements, Judy Murray urged women to keep pushing for change during her recent keynote speech to mark Women in Sport’s 40th birthday. “We can’t afford to be complacent,” she said. “We have to keep our foot on the gas. So often women in sport are like snowflakes. We float and we hit some kind of obstacle that forces us to melt away. But if we bond together and join with the allies, we can form snowballs. And snowballs can do a lot of damage.”

Funding and prize money increased but still lags behind men

Funding and prize money remain a highly contentious subject and, while bodies such as Uefa and the Football Association have announced recent increases for the women’s European Championship and the FA Cup, the numbers still lag behind the male equivalents. Next year’s Euro 2025, for example, this week announced a prize fund of €41 million (£34 million), which is up from €16 million (£13.2 million) and €8 million (£6.6 million) in 2022 and 2017 respectively, but still a fraction of the men’s €331 million (£273 million) this year.

Pressure is growing, however, for governing bodies to follow the lead of sports such as athletics, triathlon and tennis where, at the highest level, equitable reward has become the norm.

In recent weeks, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation announced equal prize money in all world championship events and called for other international federations to follow suit. Interestingly, the FA’s ban of women’s football between 1921 and 1970 was highlighted in an article by ski leaders Asne Havnelid and Tove Moe Dyrhaug about the message that should now be sent to “young women and business leaders” around the world.

The point about role models is regularly echoed both in the research – which shows that an active parent or teacher can be transformational – and in real-life experiences. Hodgkinson is coached by the husband-wife team of Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows and they see daily the impact of her success even within the elite environment of their own M11 Track Club. “Our training group is very female dominant – we have lads joining and they are saying, ‘We know the women in our group are really strong… really strong mentally’,” Meadows said. “A lot of them look at Keely and say: ‘I know she is a brilliant athlete, but she kept her composure on the biggest stage.’”

Meadows was herself a World and European medallist over 800 metres and, while athletics has always been one of the more inclusive sports, can feel the shift. “I’ve never had a situation in my life when I’ve thought I can’t do it because I’m a female. [But] I look at what we’ve got, and what we have created in our group, and I think I would have loved that.

“I definitely remember watching even Sports Personality of the Year and it was very male dominant. Keely being the fourth female in a row to win is a brilliant streak. It just shows you that you can do it. You have got to believe and, if you see people going before you, you feel like ‘that’s possible’. I have seen a change and it’s great.”

Fab four: The most recent Sports Personality winners

By Benjamin Rolfe

Emma Raducanu, 2021

A season to remember for Raducanu. First, she became the youngest British woman in the Open era to reach the fourth round of Wimbledon. Then the 18-year-old won the US Open title without dropping a set, becoming the youngest Briton to win a major singles title and the first qualifier to win a grand slam tournament.

Beth Mead, 2022

Mead was crucial to England’s European Championship success as she became the only English footballer to win both the Golden Boot and Player of the Tournament at World Cup or Euros. Unfortunately, by the time she came to collect her Spoty award, she had ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament.

Mary Earps, 2023

The England goalkeeper delivered memorable performances at the 2023 Women’s World Cup. The 31-year-old kept three clean sheets, winning the Golden Glove award, and saved a penalty against Spain in the final. Off the pitch, she successfully campaigned for her Nike goalkeeping kit to become available for sale.

Keely Hodgkinson, 2024

Hodgkinson ran nine 800m races in 2024 and won all nine, with her biggest triumph at Paris 2024 where she became only the 10th British woman to win an athletics Olympic gold. She also broke the British 800m record in 2024, with a time of 1 minute 54.61 seconds in London.