The award is presented to a non-British sportsperson considered to have made the most substantial contribution to a sport in that year.

American boxer Muhammad Ali and Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt have both won the award three times.

[4] The award has been shared on three occasions—by Ron Clarke and Gary Player in 1965, Eusébio and Garfield Sobers in 1966, and Evander Holyfield and Michael Johnson in 1996.

[5] The husband-and-wife skating duo of Oleg Protopopov and Ludmila Belousova are the only pair to have won the award, doing so in 1968.

[7][8] Fourteen sporting disciplines have been represented; tennis has the highest representation, with fifteen recipients.