Isn't it about time a Paralympian won the Sports Personality of the year award?

In light of the recent, spectacular and eye opening Paralympics I have had a change of heart carrying on from the previous thread (where I put forward the cases of messrs Bradley Wiggins and Mo Farah to claim the gong). I feel compelled to write this about our British Paralympic heroes and their respective chances for the coveted Sports Personality award so here goes.

Since the Sports Personality of the Year award's grand inauguration in 1954, 57 proud male and female athletes have deservedly won the most sought after British sporting accolades in recognition of their achievements.

The likes of Sarah Storey, Ellie Simmonds, David Weir, Tanni Grey Thompson, Lee Pearson, David Roberts and Mike Kenny have collectively accumulated an astonishing gold medal hawl of 69, at an average of almost 10 golds per athlete, astounding isn't it? If they were able bodied athletes surely they would have won the award by now.
So why has a Paralympian such as these brilliant athletes never won Sports Personality of the Year?

Who will lift this trophy in 2012?

Exposure for one. Until very recently, a Paralympic athlete will never attract as much media coverage, attention and sponsorship as able bodied athletes such as Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps or Jessica Ennis which is a great shame.
Secondly the Paralympics have, wrongly but undeniably, always played second fiddle to the Olympics in terms of crowds, ticket prices and prestige.
The fact that the Paralympics only became united with the Olympics in Athens 2004 illustrates how little interest there was in the Games until only a decade ago or so. These reasons explain why the likes of Tanni Grey Thompson (she has won the welsh version several times and good on her!) or Mike Kenny
 (the most successful British Paralympian of all time who recently vented his displeasure at being 'airbrushed out' and not given the recognition he deserves with knighthoods being given to many athletes with a far inferior medal tally)
have not held the Titular award but to hardly ever be nominated seems wrong.

Once, twice, thrice, four times a winner!

David Weir, now a British sporting legend, commented on his first Paralympic games in Atlanta 1996 that he 'could only count five people in the crowd at times, it was very disheartening and I fell out of love with the sport'. Luckily the Brit was inspired by the endeavors of the victorious British Paralympians, most notably Tanni Grey Thompson, at the Sydney Olympics four years later and vowed to 'never let himself down again' and boy has he not!

Since the Paralympics commencement in Rome 1960 the event has slowly but surely continued to grow and now the the greatest ever Paralympic games descended upon London, giving the British Public, as the channel 4 broadcasting team brilliantly put it, the chance to 'Meet the Superhumans'. Truer words have never  been spoken right? These athletes really are superhuman.

The Superhumans!

This brings me back to my original point.
Paralympians' achievements are perhaps more remarkable and unlikely as they have had to go through the likes of Amputation, Cerebral Palsy, Visual Impairment and Spinal Injuries, than those who are not handicapped by any physical or mental ailments.
And yet year after year non-disabled athletes fill every nomination with not even a mention for these 'superhumans' (bar a superhuman effort from the then 13-year-old Ellie Simmonds in Beijing who won Young Sports Personality of the Year) which is mystifying and even unjustified.

However finally it seems the rest of the world has got its act together (of course with the wonderful British public's support leading the way) as this years Paralympics was by far the greatest of them all and one none of us will ever forget.
Though Sydney really got the ball rolling with record crowds over 1.2 million, a whopping 300 million viewers tuned in and an impressive 13,000 volunteers turned out to make the Games as Tanni Grey Thompson beautifully put it 'a magical athletic Disneyland'.
Athens and Beijing have helped to build the momentum of the Games further still but it is right here in our own backyard that the Paralympics has snowballed into this colossal phenomenon.

Golds galore!

According to the London 2012 Paralympic website, almost 3 million tickets were sold (almost a million more than Beijing), a record 150 hours of TV broadcasting hours, the highest ever amount of participants, volunteers and countries involved, ground breaking revenues and best of all the most successful Team GB medal haul for over a century.

What was previously seen as an event in the Olympics shadow may even be on a par with it but more importantly it is finally getting the attention it deserves. Seb Coe spoke of the Games having a 'seismic shift in shifting public attitudes' whereas others have rightly claimed it as a 'seminal moment for Paralympic sport'.
To once again quote Seb Coe, it would be a 'seismic shift' to see a Paralympian win Sports Personality of the Year.
The statement by UK Sport Chief Executive Liz Nicholl encapsulates this momentous occasion so perfectly. 'The London Paralympic Games will be remembered as a time when we saw ability first and disability second'.
Whoever wins the award deserves it but surely after such an eye opening couple of weeks, a Paralympic athlete should at least get nominated, and nominated more often in the future, and possibly even win it.
It is important to not go down the sympathy route and say 'they should get it as they are disabled'. They should win it because they have worked just as hard, if not harder than everyone else because of their disability, and because they have achieved a staggering amount of success against the very best.

What a team GB makes!

So London 2012 has drawn to a close in an unforgettable sporting summer. Wasn't it uplifting that for once we could talk about this rather than getting bogged down in the economy and the government for example, and instead we have rejoiced and marveled in the wonder of sport. I think we can all safely say that over the last few months we have been oh so proud to be British!