Have Great Britain's golden boys and girls peaked too early? With four months to go until the BBC Sports Personality of the Year is named, our Olympic champions are already attracting money from punters, but Lewis Hamilton could yet come revving up on the inside to take the award.

Hamilton would need to win the Formula One drivers' championship to deserve such an accolade. He holds a five-point lead after 11 races but with the final grand prix in November he could benefit from voters whose memories don't stretch back to the summer. If he did, he would be following in the tyre tracks of Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill, who won the award in 1992 and 1996 despite the Olympic merits of athletes such as Linford Christie and Sir Steve Redgrave.

Rebecca Adlington, who won two gold medals in the pool, is the bookmakers' favourite at this stage, the swimmer having a small lead on Chris Hoy, the cyclist who won three golds. Bradley Wiggins, a double gold medal-winner at the velodrome, is 100-1 and Ben Ainslie, who won his third Olympic title in sailing, is 50-1, suggesting that blondes have more chance of earning the voters' favour.

Gold medal-winners have generally gone on to be recognised by the Sports Personality judges. In 1964, Mary Rand won gold in the long jump and received the award, as did David Hemery (400metres hurdles in 1968), Mary Peters (1972, pentathlon), Redgrave (2000, rowing) and Dame Kelly Holmes (2004, athletics). In 1976, 1980 and 1984, the award went to those who had won gold in the Winter Olympics: John Curry, Robin Cousins and Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean. Gold is not always a guarantee of success. David Broome, the showjumper, won bronze at the 1960 Olympics but won the BBC title ahead of two gold medal-winners, Anita Lonsbrough and Don Thompson.

There appear to be only four contenders for the Overseas Personality of the Year award. Michael Phelps, who won eight gold medals in Beijing, and Usain Bolt, with a mere three, are even-money joint favourites, with Rafael Nadal (one gold medal and the world No1 in tennis) at 7-1 and Padraig Harrington (no golds, two major titles in golf) 12-1.

Odds on being named BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 2008
11-8 Rebecca Adlington
9-4 Chris Hoy
5-2 Lewis Hamilton
16-1 Christine Ohuruogu
33-1 Andy Murray
50-1 Tom Daley, Ben Ainslie
66-1 Amir Khan
80-1 bar
Source: Coral