Peaty hopes fourth SPOTY nomination will bring victory

The Olympic and world champion was shortlisted for the award in 2014, 2015 and 2016 but is yet to claim the trophy.

Peaty's inclusion in the list comes after another successful year, breaking his own 50m breaststroke record twice to claim World Championship gold.

The 22-year-old became the first man to swim the distance in under 26 seconds in Budapest, where he also defended his 100m title and won 4x100m medley relay silver.

All this earned Peaty a trip to Buckingham Palace to pick up an MBE in October and he hopes to grab more accolades with this latest nomination.

"It's really good to be nominated – it's my fourth time now, so fourth time lucky, hopefully," he said.

"Being nominated for Sports Personality of the Year is a huge, huge honour for me.

"It's not only me that this gives recognition too but also my coaches and my family – it obviously makes them proud.

"It's for all those people who have supported me along the way and it's great to be able to put my sport on the map."

Once more, Peaty faces tough competition from the other athletes named by the BBC, including fan-favourites Mo Farah and Anthony Joshua.

The swimmer stressed how challenging it had been to achieve what he has so soon after the Rio Olympics, but insisted he would keep pushing for improvements.

"This year has had many highlights – obviously I've been to the World Championships and had an amazing competition coming back with two golds and a silver as well as two new world records," he added.

"It's amazing to be the first man under 26 seconds and hopefully I can push those times down again very soon.

"Going into next year it's all about how we can improve those times and how can we get better.

"After the Olympics I trained really hard, so my achievements this year have been a lot of hard work but I'm looking forward to taking the next steps now."

Sportsbeat 2017