Olympic champion Lizzy Yarnold and skier Charlotte Evans are among the nominees for this year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

Lizzy, a former student of Maidstone Girls Grammar School, won gold in the women’s skeleton competition in Sochi in February.

She took to Twitter to express her delight at the news of her nomination, saying: "Thanks everyone for all the wonderful messages, thanks for the nomination @BBCSPOTY! #BeenAGreatDay #HugeSmile"

The 26-year-old, who grew up in West Kingsdown, will be flying back from Lake Placid in the US, and then flying straight back out to Calgary in Canada after the ceremony on Sunday, December 14.

She’s been nominated alongside visually-impaired skier Kelly Gallagher and her Medway guide, Charlotte Evans.

Charlotte, who used to train at Chatham Ski Centre, studied at Rochester Grammar School and MidKent College.

Together the pair won Paralympic GB’s first-ever winter gold medal, in the visually impaired Super-G in Sochi.

Kelly told the BBC: "Charlotte will be coming up on stage with me; she’s not being left out.

"We won gold together, we do drugs tests together, we get down the slope together. Not to sound like Liam Neeson, but her ‘very particular set of skills’ makes us what we are!

"I’d never seen the words 'legacy' and 'inspiration' in action until I came home from Sochi. After the reaction we had, those words now mean something."

The winner will be decided by a public vote, which begins on the night itself.

The candidates were chosen by an expert 12-member panel made up of Olympians Rebecca Adlington and Denise Lewis, Paralympian Baroness Tanni-Grey Thompson, TV executives and journalists.

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