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The following is a list of films featuring the sport of athletics, including track and field.
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The following is a list of films featuring the sport of athletics, including track and field.
| Title | Year | Genre | Event(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| College | 1927 | Comedy | Silent film with Buster Keaton trying multiple sports. | |
| Olympic Games | 1927 | Comedy | Our Gang children's version of the Olympics. | |
| Local Boy Makes Good | 1931 | Comedy | Sprints | Shy librarian (Joe E. Brown) joins a college track team to impress a girl. |
| Million Dollar Legs | 1932 | Comedy | Shot put | W. C. Fields fable of team from "Klopstokia" competing at the 1932 Summer Olympics. |
| A Million to One | 1937 | Drama | Decathlon | After his dad is stripped of an Olympic gold medal, Johnny Kent trains to win one. |
| The Bob Mathias Story | 1954 | Biographical | Decathlon | A look at career of two-time Olympic gold medalist Bob Mathias. |
| Geordie | 1955 | Comedy | Hammer | Story of Scotsman out to get to the Summer Olympics. |
| It Happened in Athens | 1962 | Comedy | Marathon | Jayne Mansfield in story set at 1896 Olympics in Greece. |
| The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner | 1962 | Drama | Distance running | Acclaimed film from UK starring Tom Courtenay. |
| Billie | 1965 | Comedy | Sprints | Patty Duke as a high school athlete who competes with boys. |
| Walk, Don't Run | 1966 | Comedy | Race walking | Final film of Cary Grant, set during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. |
| The Games | 1970 | Drama | Marathon | Ryan O'Neal and Michael Crawford as fictional distance runners. |
| The World's Greatest Athlete | 1973 | Comedy | Track | Disney tale of a jungle boy who becomes a star athlete. |
| The Loneliest Runner | 1976 | Drama | Marathon | Made for TV, written and directed by Michael Landon. |
| See How She Runs | 1978 | Drama | Marathon | Made for TV |
| Crossbar | 1979 | Drama | High Jump | Made for TV |
| The Jericho Mile | 1979 | Drama | Mile | Made for TV about a prisoner trying to qualify for the Olympics. |
| Our Winning Season | 1979 | Drama | Mile | Story of a high school senior during time of the Vietnam War. |
| Running | 1979 | Drama | Marathon | Michael Douglas as fictional Olympic distance-running hopeful. |
| Goldengirl | 1979 | Sci-fi | Sprints | A scientifically enhanced girl (Susan Anton) trains for the 1980 Moscow Olympics. |
| A Shining Season | 1979 | Biographical | Running | True story of John Baker, a girls' track coach dying of cancer. |
| Chariots of Fire | 1981 | Drama | Sprints | True story set during 1924 Olympics. Four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. |
| Graduation Day | 1981 | Horror | Track | Slasher film about school's track athletes being murdered. |
| Personal Best | 1982 | Drama | Track | Mariel Hemingway in fictional story of women's track and field. |
| Running Brave | 1983 | Drama | 10,000 m | Biographical film on the life and career of Billy Mills, starring Robby Benson. |
| On the Edge | 1985 | Drama | Trail running | A distance runner (Bruce Dern) fights for amateurs' rights during California's Dipsea Race. |
| The Jesse Owens Story | 1985 | Biographical | Sprints, long jump | True story of legendary 1930s athlete Jesse Owens, portrayed by Dorian Harewood. |
| Cracked Up | 1987 | Drama | Track | A high school athlete has a serious problem with cocaine. |
| Run for Your Life | 1988 | Drama/Thriller | Marathon | Italian-British production starring David Carradine. |
| The Four Minute Mile | 1988 | Biographical | Mile | Record-breaking run of Roger Bannister, made for television. |
| Across the Tracks | 1991 | Drama | Track | Brad Pitt and Rick Schroeder as brothers who compete in high school track and field. |
| Forrest Gump | 1994 | Comedy-drama | Running | Forrest Gump, among other things, runs repeatedly across the continental United States. |
| Pentathlon | 1994 | Thriller | Pentathlon | An East German pentathlete (Dolph Lundgren) defects to USA, where his former coach, now a neo-Nazi, finds and harasses him. |
| Run for the Dream: The Gail Devers Story | 1996 | Biographical | 100m H | True story of hardships and success of great U.S. athlete Gail Devers. |
| Prefontaine | 1997 | Biographical | Running | True story of Oregon middle distance runner Steve Prefontaine, played by Jared Leto. |
| Without Limits | 1998 | Biographical | Running | Another version of life and death of Steve Prefontaine, starring Billy Crudup. |
| Endurance | 1999 | Drama | Distance running | Biographical film about Haile Gebrselassie. |
| The Long Run | 2000 | Drama | Ultramarathon | Story of the Comrades Marathon, an annual 55-mile foot race in South Africa. |
| Pumpkin | 2002 | Comedy | Christina Ricci in story about a developmentally challenged youth. | |
| Hitler's Pawn – The Margaret Lambert Story | 2004 | Documentary | High Jump | True story of Gretel Bergmann, kept out of 1936 Olympics for being Jewish, replaced by an athlete who turned out to be a man. Later dramatized in Berlin 36 . |
| Miracle Run | 2004 | Family | Cross country | A young autistic boy (Zac Efron) becomes interested in cross-country running. |
| Four Minutes | 2005 | Biographical | Mile | Made for TV. Chronicles the successful quest of Roger Bannister to break the four-minute barrier in the mile. |
| The Ringer | 2005 | Comedy | Johnny Knoxville bad-taste spoof of Special Olympics. | |
| Saint Ralph | 2005 | Drama | Marathon | A 15-year-old boy attempts to run in the 1954 Boston Marathon. |
| Terry | 2005 | Documentary | Road running | Made for TV. Documents the Marathon of Hope, 1980 attempt of cancer patient and amputee Terry Fox to run across Canada. |
| Run Fatboy Run | 2007 | Romantic comedy | Marathon | David Schwimmer-directed comedy about an out-of-shape British man (Simon Pegg) who enters a marathon. |
| Spirit of the Marathon | 2007 | Documentary | Marathon | Follows six runners training for the 2005 Chicago Marathon |
| Racing for Time | 2008 | Track | Made for TV. Based on a true story about youths in a correctional facility. | |
| Salute | 2008 | Documentary | Multiple events | Australian film looking back at 1968 Mexico City Olympics, focusing on Peter Norman, who stood alongside Tommie Smith and John Carlos in support of their protest after winning medals in the 200 metres. Directed by Norman's nephew Matt Norman. |
| The One Man Olympics | 2008 | Biographical | Track | Biographic of China's first ever Olympian Liu Changchun and his journey to compete in 1932 Summer Olympics. |
| Berlin 36 | 2009 | Drama | High jump | Top athlete Gretel Bergmann is excluded from Berlin Olympics for being Jewish. |
| Chasing a Dream | 2009 | Drama | Mile run | TV film on emotionally scarred boy who attempts to run a sub-4-minute mile. |
| The Runner | 2009 | Ultra Trail | ||
| Into the Wind | 2010 | Documentary | Road running | Made for TV as part of ESPN's 30 for 30 series. Another look at Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope, co-directed by NBA's Steve Nash, who followed Fox's run as a child. |
| Marion Jones: Press Pause | 2010 | Documentary | Sprints | Made for TV as part of ESPN's 30 for 30 series. On career of Marion Jones, her 2007 admission of performance-enhancing drug use, and subsequent prison sentence. |
| The Robber | 2010 | Drama | Marathon | German film about an Austrian bank-robbing runner. |
| Paan Singh Tomar | 2012 | Drama | Steeplechase | Indian film based on the true story of an athlete Paan Singh Tomar. |
| 9.79* | 2012 | Documentary | 100 m | Made for TV as part of ESPN's 30 for 30 series. On men's 100 metres of 1988 Olympics, where Ben Johnson set world record but was disqualified after positive test for steroids. |
| Fast Girls | 2012 | Drama | Sprints | British film about two women sprinters. |
| Ethir Neechal | 2013 | Comedy/Drama | Marathon | Story about a Common Young man having talent as a runner, who strives to make his identity into a pride one. |
| Bhaag Milkha Bhaag | 2013 | Drama | Running | Indian film based on true story of an athlete Milkha Singh. |
| Runner | 2013 | Documentary | Distance Running | Made for TV as part of ESPN's Nine for IX series. The stunning collision that defined the one thing missing from the otherwise brilliant career of distance runner Mary Decker |
| Spirit of the Marathon II | 2013 | Documentary | Marathon | Runners train for the 2012 Rome Marathon |
| Unbroken | 2014 | Biographical | Running | An Olympic runner becomes and survives being a World War II prisoner of war |
| 4 Minute Mile | 2014 | Drama | Mile Run | A coach decides to train a student with natural athletic talent. Tragedy strikes, forcing the student to confront everything that has been holding him back. |
| McFarland, USA | 2015 | Biographical | Cross country | Kevin Costner portrays Jim White, who built the predominantly Latino McFarland High School into a California cross country power. |
| Race | 2016 | Biographical | Sprints | A new dramatization of the life of Jesse Owens, highlighted by the 1936 Summer Olympics. |
| Tracktown | 2016 | Drama | Long distance running | Training for the Olympics |
| The Infinite Race | 2020 | Documentary | Ultramarathon | Made for TV as part of ESPN's 30 for 30 series. The story of the Tarahumara, an indigenous people in Mexico famed for their long-distance running culture who inspired an worldwide ultrarunning craze, while at the same time being ravaged by the country's drug wars. |
| The Life and Trials of Oscar Pistorius | 2020 | Documentary | Sprints | Four-part film made for TV as part of ESPN's 30 for 30 series and premiering on the ESPN+ streaming service. Examines Oscar Pistorius from his childhood in the last days of apartheid, to worldwide celebrity as the first double-leg amputee to compete in the able-bodied Olympics, to convicted murderer. |
| Zero to Hero | 2021 | Biographical | Sprints | Hong Kong film based on true story of para-athlete So Wa Wai |
| Listen | 2023 | Documentary | Multi-event | ESPN+ film documenting the multiple failures of University of Utah officials to address concerns raised by Utes heptathlete Lauren McCluskey, culminating in her 2018 murder. |
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