Criteria Awards

• All categories in process begins now and see the deadline date ends on Friday 20th September 2024

For Lifetime Achievement Award only, see the deadline date ends on Wednesday 31st July 2024 

• Nomination is restricted to the UK residents.
• Overseas residents can be nominated for Overseas Sports of the Year and/or Overseas Visual Sports Media of the Year only.
• Nominees cannot nominate themselves per individual category award.
• Anyone associated with their team-mate, team, club, voluntary organisation or work company, can submit a nomination online.
• You can submit as many nominations as you like across the different categories.
• By the term of "Deaf athletes", this is regardless of their specific hearing loss as long as it meets the regulations of their specific sport body they are involved with.
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• Athletes are nominated from any age and from any Deaf/Mainstream sports in the UK that is affiliated to the Deaf/Mainstream Sports.
• Citizen and resident athletes who participate in Deaf/Mainstream Sports for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales or Great Britain.
• Each nomination will require a brief summary (at least 300 words) on the athlete's achievement and merit.
• Any Deaf athlete or Trustee who have a Code of Conduct or similar on their terms, will be allowed to be nominated by the external community.
• DSPY will collate the nomination forms and pass them onto six Judges.
• DSPY will announce the names of shortlisted nominees in alphabetical order and not in any order of preference. 
• By attending the awards ceremony, shortlisted nominees agree to have their images to be used in press and publicity features.

If you know someone who deserves to be recognised for their sporting achievements or contribution to sport, please nominate them for the Awards in the following:-

For Deaf Sports Personality of the Year -

•  The judges will decide the six most deserving athletes to be shortlisted.
•  The six shortlisted athletes and their profiles will be shown on the social media resources one month before the DSPY Awards.
•  The winner, runner up and third placed DSPY will be based on judges vote and public votes. This will be overseen by an independent adjudicator.
•  DSPY reserves the right to disqualify votes if it has reasonable grounds to suspect that fraudulent, excessive or suspicious patterns of voting have occurred or if   it considers there has been any attempt to rig the  voting.

For Lifetime Achievement -

•  The nomination forms will be collated and the judges will decide on the most deserving athlete to win this precious Award with the winner announcing on the night of DSPY Awards.

For Coach of the Year, Sports Club of the Year, Team of the Year, Unsung Hero, Visual Sports Media of the Year - 

•  The judges will decide the three most deserving athletes to be shortlisted for each award.
•  The three shortlisted athletes and their profiles will be shown on the social media resources one month before the DSPY Awards.
•  The winners will be decided by the judges vote and public voting on the night of DSPY Awards. This will be overseen by an independent adjudicator.

For Young Deaf Sports Personality of the Year - 

•  Same procedure as Coach of the Year etc above except for a sportsperson aged 18 or under during 31st Dec per biennial awards.

For Overseas Sports of the Year and Overseas Visual Sports Media of the Year - 

•   Same procedure as Coach of the Year etc above except Overseas athletes are those that represent their country overseas including Republic of Ireland athletes representing Ireland

•  DSPY will select three women and three men as six neutral judges from Northern Ireland, North of England, Midlands, South of England, Scotland and Wales  for every Awards ceremony.
•  DSPY will not announce who the judges are during the nomination process.
•  All nominations will be collated from the public, leading up to the deadline and must be kept in confidential between six neutral judges. DSPY do not want any leaks to the public that could affect judge's  decision-making.

• Each nomination will require a brief summary (at least 300 words) on the athlete's achievement and merit. This will enable the six judges to make a reasonable   and fair judgement in selecting the most  deserving athletes for a specific award.
•  If the judge(s) are themselves in the shortlist or nominated athletes or become Trustee(s) in the sports organisation, DSPY will request the judge(s) to step  down to avoid any conflict of interest.
•  DSPY will announce the names (or identity) of judges at DSPY Awards after they complete their verdicts for all awards. If any judge(s) wish to stay anonymous,  DSPY will respect their wishes.