Movies about athletics
List of movies about the sport of track & field
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- DirectorJames W. HorneBuster KeatonStarsBuster KeatonAnne CornwallFlora BramleyRonald's high-school valedictory address praises books and condemns sports. His girlfriend Mary condemns his attitude. Fearing to lose her to rival Jeff, he decides to go to college and pay more attentions to sports.
- DirectorMervyn LeRoyStarsJoe E. BrownDorothy LeeRuth HallJohn is a timid student who works at the University Bookstore. He is studying to be a botanist and has a secret crush on the lovely Julia. One day, one of his letters gets mailed accidentally and Julia receives it. When the letter says that he is a fraternity man and a big track star, Julia rushes right over to see him. But John is neither and Spike, Julia's boyfriend, is a track star at a nearby college. John does not want to enter the track meet, so Julia tries to use psychology on him. That and a good wrestling hold make John timidly agree to enter the race, but Spike still scares him.
- DirectorEdward F. ClineStarsJack OakieW.C. FieldsAndy ClydeA small country on the verge of bankruptcy is persuaded to enter the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics as a means of raising money.
- DirectorLynn ShoresStarsBruce BennettJoan FontaineReed HowesJohn Kent (Monte Blue') wins the Olympic decathlon but is disqualified on a charge of professionalism. William Stevens (Kenneth Harlan), the second-place finisher, is awarded the title and trophies. Six years later Kent is running a moving truck for a living and training his young son Johnny (Bruce Bennett) to become an athlete. Chance brings about a meeting between Ken and Stevens, now a prosperous business man, with a little daughter, Joan (Joan Fontaine), who makes friends with young Johnny. As the years pass, the grown-up Johnny has developed to where he stands a chance of becoming an Olympic athlete and is in love with Joan. Mr. Stevens also wants to see Johnny succeed, and is annoyed that his attention to Joan may interfere with his training. Rich girl Patricia Stanley (Suzanne Kaaren) is also interested in Johnny, a proceeding which suits wealthy young athlete Duke Hale (Reed Howes), who is Johnny's main rival in sports and for Joan. Stevens, in an effort to repay the elder Kent for the wrong done him in stripping him of his rightful Olympic title, makes Johnny a member of the athletic club that sponsors the preliminary track-and-field events leading to the choosing of the American team for the Olympic Games. Johnny wins first place in the initial trials and is carried away by the flattery of the social set, which leads to a quarrel and separation from his father. At a party given by Patricia, Johnny drinks heavily, and Joan, feeling she is partly to blame for Johnny breaking his training, tells him she is through if him, hoping to bring him to his senses.
- DirectorFrancis D. LyonStarsBob MathiasWard BondMelba MathiasCalifornia school boy and Stanford University student Bob Mathias was the first man to win two Olympic Gold Medals in the Decathlon in the 1948 and 1952 Olympics. The film begins with him as a 17-year-old schoolboy in Tulare, California where his high school track coach, played by Ward Bond, encourages him to train for the Olympics, with the Dacathlon in mind. His story, far from over, ends here with his victory in the 1952 Olympics and with Mathias in the U.S. Marine Corps. He and his wife, Melba, play themselves in one of the few movie bios that doesn't play fast and loose with the facts, especially in a bio with the subject playing himself.
- DirectorFrank LaunderStarsBill TraversAlastair SimPaul YoungGeordie is a very small boy who feels that the girl he loves is ignoring him because of his size. He decides to take a correspondence course in body-building. At 21, Geordie becomes one of the tallest and strongest men in Scotland.
- DirectorAndrew MartonStarsJayne MansfieldTrax ColtonNico MinardosIn 1896 it is announced that the Olympic Games will be revived in Athens. A young shepherd, Spiridon Loues, decides to enter the 26-mile marathon. Once in Athens, he meets Christina Gratsos, a young woman from his hometown who is now the personal maid of Eleni Costa, Greece's most glamorous actress. Though he has arrived after the qualification date, Spiridon's athletic prowess so impresses Coach Graham of the American team that he is permitted to enter the contest. Eleni informs the press that she will marry the victor, confident it will be her lover, Lieutenant Vinardos.
- DirectorTony RichardsonStarsMichael RedgraveTom CourtenayAvis BunnageA young thief takes up long-distance running when he is sent to a borstal.
- DirectorDon WeisStarsPatty DukeJim BackusJane GreerA 16-year-old tomboy and high school athlete finds herself caught between being beating boys at sports and having a boyfriend, while her conservative father opposes women's rights in his campaign for mayor.
- DirectorCharles WaltersStarsCary GrantSamantha EggarJim HuttonDuring the housing shortage of the Summer Olympic Games in 1964, two men and a woman share a small apartment in Tokyo, and the older man soon starts playing Cupid to the younger pair.
- DirectorMichael WinnerStarsMichael CrawfordStanley BakerRyan O'NealFour marathon runners (one from England, one from the U.S., a Czechoslovakian, and an Australian Aborigine) prepare to run in the Olympic games. The film follows each one and shows what their motivations are for running in the games.
- DirectorRobert ScheererStarsJohn AmosJan-Michael VincentTim ConwayA down on his luck coach travels to Africa where he spots the world's greatest athlete - a white Tarzan-type. The coach brings him back to the U.S. of A. to compete.
- DirectorMichael LandonStarsLance KerwinBrian KeithDeAnn MearsA young boy who still wets the bed finds escapism from his abusive mother and his own embarrassment by going running after school.
- DirectorRichard T. HeffronStarsJoanne WoodwardJohn ConsidineBarnard HughesThis is the story of a 40-year-old divorced teacher whose life is changed by her decision to enter the Boston Marathon.
- DirectorJohn TrentStarsBrent CarverKim CattrallJohn IrelandThe story of an Olympic high jumper, played by Brent Carver, who loses his leg and yet doggedly persists in his pursuit of athletic glory. Released a year before Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope, this made-for-Canadian-TV movie, which also stars Sex and the City's Kim Cattrall, has been described as a tear-jerker.
- DirectorMichael MannStarsPeter StraussRichard LawsonRoger E. MosleyA prisoner gets a chance to take part in the Olympics.
- DirectorJoseph RubenStarsScott JacobyDeborah BensonDennis QuaidThe story follows three teenagers through their senior year of high school in the 1960s, focusing on the star athlete of the group.
- DirectorSteven Hilliard SternStarsMichael DouglasSusan AnspachLawrence DaneAmerican marathon runner Michael Andropolis sets his heart on representing his country at the Olympic games. Meanwhile his marriage has fallen apart and his children have no respect for him. He sets out on his task with determination and hope that his success will resolve his personal problems.
- DirectorJoseph SargentStarsJames CoburnSusan AntonCurd JürgensA neo-Nazi doctor tries to make a superwoman of his daughter who has been specially fed, exercised, and conditioned since she was a child in preparation of the Olympics.
- DirectorStuart MargolinStarsTimothy BottomsAllyn Ann McLerieConstance ForslundThe fact-based story of John Baker, a former collegiate track star turned elementary school phys ed teacher who, after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, spends his remaining time coaching a losing girls' track team to a winning season.
- DirectorHugh HudsonStarsBen CrossIan CharlesonNicholas FarrellTwo British track athletes, one a determined Jew and the other a devout Christian, are driven to win in the 1924 Olympics as they wrestle with issues of pride and conscience.
- DirectorHerb FreedStarsChristopher GeorgePatch MackenzieE. Danny MurphyA masked killer begins murdering students on the school track team after a track runner dies upon completion of a 30 second 200-meter race.
- DirectorRobert TowneStarsMariel HemingwayScott GlennPatrice DonnellyThe intertwined lives and loves of three highly ranked athletes striving for the national team; Chris bounces between the beds of male coach Terry and her female friend, competitor, and role model Tory.
- DirectorDonald ShebibStarsRobby BensonPat HingleClaudia CronThe story of Billy Mills, the American Indian who came from obscurity to win the 10,000-meter long-distance foot-race in the Tokyo Olympics in 1964.
- DirectorAllan LevineStarsJan Taylor HendricksSimon SekulovichRobert ReeceUSA decides to change the world's balance of power by providing Finland with a nuclear bomb. which could mean the start of WW3.
- DirectorRichard IrvingStarsDorian HarewoodGeorg Stanford BrownDebbi MorganThis is the compelling story of Jesse Owens, a man who overcame racial barriers to become one of history's greatest Olympic athletes by disproving Adolf Hitler's theory of Aryan athletic superiority through his success in track and field.
- DirectorKaren ArthurStarsEdward AsnerRaphael SbargeJames WilderSeventeen-year-old track star, John Owens, has never used any drug stronger than pot, until he meets an older woman who introduces him to crack cocaine. He quickly becomes addicted but is able to hide his problem from all except his best friend, Chris.
- DirectorTerence YoungStarsDavid CarradineLauren HuttonGeorge SegalMajor Charles Forsythe (Carradine) is a Vietnam veteran U.S. Army officer stationed near Rome. He is a brutal, if effective, commander who was "fragged" by his own men in Vietnam. When he is denied promotion because of the number of men injured during his training exercises, he takes out his anger by beating his pregnant wife Sarah (Hutton). She miscarries. On her release from the hospital, Sarah is determined to get back into shape and begins running. She meets Alan Morani (Segal) a former Olympic runner who is a paraplegic as the result of a car accident. Morani offers to coach Sarah to run in the Rome marathon, a race which her husband has won two years in a row. Sarah realizes that winning the race is the best way to avenge the death of her baby and destroy her husband's ego.
- DirectorJim GoddardStarsRichard HuwNique NeedlesAdrian RawlinsA dramatisation of the race to the four-minute mile, featuring Richard Huw as Bannister and Nique Needles as Landy. It was written by David Williamson and directed by Jim Goddard.
- DirectorSandy TungStarsRicky SchroderBrad PittCarrie SnodgressTwo brothers: one a drug-dealing layabout, while the other is a hardworking "model son." When the one begins straightening himself out by becoming a high school track star, the other is jealous and retreats into alcohol.
- DirectorBruce MalmuthStarsDolph LundgrenDavid SoulRenée ColemanAn Olympic gold medalist escapes to freedom in the US, only to be tracked down by his sadistic ex-coach.
- DirectorNeema BarnetteStarsCharlayne WoodardLouis Gossett Jr.Tina LiffordTruth is stranger than fiction. Olympic gold medal hurdler Gail Devers almost lost her feet to a mysterious disease after being picked for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. She failed to qualify for the finals as the disease (Graves Disease) left her feet swollen, cracked, and oozing blood. After two years, doctors were on the verge of amputating when it was discovered that radiation treatment was making it worse. Gail Devers eventually recovered and went on to win the one hundred meter in Barcelona. She might have won the one hundred meter hurdles if she hadn't tripped on the final hurdle. She also competed in and won the sprint at Atlanta.
- DirectorSteve JamesStarsJared LetoR. Lee ErmeyEd O'NeillBased on the life of Olympic hopeful Steve Prefontaine, a long distance runner who lived in Oregon and died young.
- DirectorRobert TowneStarsBilly CrudupDonald SutherlandMonica PotterThe life of renowned runner Steve Prefontaine and his relationship with legendary coach Bill Bowerman.
- CreatorTodd A. NelsonJ.D. RothStarsJ.D. RothJenna JimenezMax DeleoOn Endurance, teams of boys and girls from across the United States will have to prove themselves in various challenges and missions to win the title of Endurance champions.
- DirectorAndrea AmbandosStarsAlan FingerLisa BennettGina MenzaThis variation on the popular power-yoga style, as is the unfortunate case with many yoga tapes, moves both into and through its program too quickly, with virtually no warm-up or introductory instruction (especially in breathing techniques) for the uninitiated. For that reason, among others, it is not recommended for newcomers. The more experienced, however, will certainly get the "challenging, athletic workout" the tape promises. Instructor Lisa Bennett is cheerful as she conducts a vigorous series of sun salutes, balancing poses, back-bends, hip and abdominal poses, and such; you'll keep moving almost constantly, and if breaking a sweat is your goal, you can't go wrong here. The overall tone, however, is rather like an infomercial, which could become irritating over repeated viewings.
- DirectorLeslie WoodheadBud GreenspanStarsHaile GebrselassieShawananness GebrselassieYonas ZergawThe gold medal for the men's 10,000-metre race in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics is won by Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie.
- DirectorJean StewartStarsArmin Mueller-StahlNthati MosheshPaterson JosephA failed track coach finally finds someone who he believes has what it takes to win.
- DirectorAnthony AbramsAdam Larson BroderStarsChristina RicciHank HarrisBrenda BlethynA sorority girl finds her life falling apart after she develops romantic feelings for a mentally-challenged man.
- DirectorGeorge RoyStarsMargaret LambertJulius BendorfAvery BrundageThe life story of Margaret Lambert, a German athlete who wasn't allowed to compete at the 1936 Olympic games because of her religion.
- DirectorGregg ChampionStarsMary-Louise ParkerAidan QuinnZac EfronA mom is alone with her fraternal twin sons after they're diagnosed with autism. She tries to give them a normal childhood.
- DirectorCharles BeesonStarsJamie MaclachlanChristopher PlummerShaun SmythThe story of the four minute mile-breaker Roger Bannister.
- DirectorBarry W. BlausteinStarsJohnny KnoxvilleKatherine HeiglBrian CoxA young guy's only option to erase a really bad debt is to rig the Special Olympics by posing as a contestant.
- DirectorMichael McGowanStarsAdam ButcherCampbell ScottJennifer TillySaint Ralph is the unlikely story of Ralph Walker, a ninth-grader who outran everyone's expectations except his own in his bold quest to win the 1954 Boston Marathon.
- DirectorDavid SchwimmerStarsSimon PeggThandiwe NewtonHank AzariaFive years after jilting his pregnant fiancée on their wedding day, out-of-shape Dennis decides to run a marathon to win her back.
- DirectorCharles S. DuttonStarsCharles S. DuttonYaya DaCostaZulay HenaoFrom Emmy-winning director and actor Charles S. Dutton, comes the true story of a guard (Dutton) at a Teen Correctional Facility-- who saw the cycle of destructive choices and racial tensions between female teen offenders, and decided to do something about it. He gathered African-American, Latina, and white teens, and put together a multi-racial track team behind the bars of the detention center.
- DirectorYong HouStarsZhaolin LiLiang ShiHaiying SunThe story of Liu Changchun, China's first Olympic athlete, and his journey from Japanese occupied China to the 1932 Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games. One man representing 400 million people.
- DirectorKaspar HeidelbachStarsKaroline HerfurthSebastian UrzendowskyAxel PrahlIn the days leading up to the 1936 Olympics, the fate of high jumper Gretel Bergmann hangs in the balance as it is decided whether or not a Jewish athlete can be a part of the German Olympic team.
- DirectorDavid Burton MorrisStarsTreat WilliamsJoanna GoingAndrew LawrenceWhen his best friend, a championship runner, is killed in a car accident while running home from a party, high school football star CAM STILES suffers a nervous breakdown from the guilt and pain. It also tears apart his relationship with his father, GARY STILES, who also happens to be his football coach. When Cam decides to quit football and join the track team to honor his friend, his former teammates turn against him, too. Eventually, Cam goes for a sub-four that seems impossible and manages to win and lose the race at the same time.
- DirectorMat KingStarsConnor TrinneerJames KysonToni TrucksWhen ordered to retrieve a crate from a distant planet, two mercenaries learn that they must in fact smuggle a woman off world. They then crash-land on a planet packed with vicious giant alien bugs.
- DirectorBenjamin HeisenbergStarsAndreas LustMarkus SchleinzerRoman KettnerA story based on Johann Rettenberger, an Austrian marathon runner and a bank robber.
- DirectorTigmanshu DhuliaStarsIrrfan KhanMahie GillRajesh AbhayThe story of Paan Singh Tomar, an Indian athlete and seven-time national steeplechase champion who becomes one of the most feared dacoits in Chambal Valley after his retirement.
- DirectorRegan HallStarsLenora CrichlowPhil DavisJamie HowardA street smart runner develops an intense rivalry with an equally ambitious wealthy young athlete.
- DirectorRakeysh Omprakash MehraStarsFarhan AkhtarKousi OrfahliDeepak Singh RawatThe truth behind the ascension of Milkha Singh, who was scarred by of the India-Pakistan partition.
- DirectorAngelina JolieStarsJack O'ConnellMiyaviDomhnall GleesonAfter a near-fatal plane crash in WWII, Olympian Louis Zamperini spends a harrowing 47 days in a raft with two fellow crewmen before he's caught by the Japanese navy and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp.
- DirectorCharles-Olivier MichaudStarsKelly BlatzRichard JenkinsKim BasingerA former track coach decides to train a student with natural athletic talent. Tragedy strikes, forcing the student to confront everything that has been holding him back.
- DirectorNiki CaroStarsKevin CostnerMaria BelloRamiro RodriguezJim White moves his family after losing his last job as a football coach, and at his new school he turns seven disappointing students into one of the best cross-country teams in the region.
- DirectorStephen HopkinsStarsStephan JamesJason SudeikisEli GoreeJesse Owens' quest to become the greatest track and field athlete in history thrusts him onto the world stage of the 1936 Olympics, where he faces off against Adolf Hitler's vision of Aryan supremacy.