The genre of fiction that places the focus on
sports, usually following a player, coach, or team as they challenge themselves to rise to the top of the sport in question.
Sports Stories can span a single game, a tournament, or an entire career. While the rules of the game, training, and the rivalry between players is the most common source of drama in these types of works, it is often the protagonist team that must learn something important about themselves to overcome the odds.
For related tropes, see
Sports Story Tropes.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
American Football
Association Football
Baseball
Basketball
Boxing
Figure Skating
Gymnastics
Judo
Mixed Martial Arts
Racing
Ski Jumping
Swimming
Tennis
Volleyball
Tank Combat
Comic Books
American Football
Racing
Multiple Sports
- The classic British comic Tiger consisted entirely of sports stories, including Association Football (Roy of the Rovers, Billy's Boots, Hotshot Hamish), Boxing (Blackjack, Fisty Flynn), Rally driving (Martin's Marvellous Mini), Pro Wrestling (Johnny Cougar), Formula One (Skid Solo) and many more.
Film
American Football
Baseball
Basketball
- Above The Rim
- The Air Up There: Film starring Kevin Bacon as a college coach who goes to recruit a player in Africa to play at his college.
- Blue Chips: Film starring Nick Nolte who is a college coach recruiting players to his program, but has to utilize shady means to do so.
- Eddie: Whoopi Goldberg becomes head coach of the New York Knicks.
- The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh: A failing pro team uses astrology to build a winning roster.
- He Got Game
- Hoop Dreams: a basketball documentary.
- Hoosiers
- Rebound: A coach gets kicked out of coaching college basketball and down to Junior Varsity.
- Space Jam: Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan play basket ball against space aliens.
- White Men Cant Jump: Street hustling games in L.A.
- "Mighty Macs": A fact-based basketball documentary.Underdog Immaculata comes out of nowhere to win several AIAWnote The AIAW (Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women) governed U.S. college women's sports until the NCAA began organizing women's championships in 1981. The AIAW could not compete against the much better-funded NCAA; it no longer sponsored championships after the 1981–82 school year, and formally dissolved in 1983. titles.
Boxing
Cricket
Figure Skating
- Blades of Glory: Two men explore the world of couples figure skating.
- The Cutting Edge: An ex-hockey player pairs up with a stuck-up figure skater to compete in couples competition.
- Ice Princess: The story of a Math Genius who wants to compete as a figure skater.
Football/Soccer
Golf
Ice Hockey
Martial Arts
Racing
Roller Derby
Skateboarding
Tennis
Other Sports
Multiple Sports
Literature
American Football
- Friday Night Lights: The chronicle of the Odessa, Texas high-school football team, the Permian Panthers.
Baseball
Football/Soccer
Racing
Mulitple Sports
Live Action TV
American Football
Baseball
Cricket
Football/Soccer
- De Kampioenen is a Flemish comedy series about a highly incompetent local league soccer team. Well known in the Flanders for its Long Runner status with 21 seasons.
Martial Arts
Other Sports
Multiple Sports
- Sports Night: A bit more meta than some of the examples, this show is about sports anchors and the games that they cover.
Manhua And Manhwa
Newspaper Comics
Football/Soccer
- F.C. Knudde is a Dutch gag-strip about another highly incompetent soccer team.
- Billy The Fish is a football/soccer-themed comic strip which parodies this kind of stories, starring a half-man half-fish who is a star goalkeeper.
Multiple Sports
- Tank McNamara is a comic strip about a former (American) football player who is now a sportscaster.
- Gil Thorpe is about a high-school coach and his players. He is the head coach of the football, boys basketball and baseball teams and coaches golf in the summer. Often mocked on The Comic Curmudgeon for losing in the "playdowns" every season.
Visual Novels
Web Original
Western Animation
American Football
- NFL Rush Zone: Guardians of the Core
Baseball
Basketball
Football/Soccer
Hockey
Racing
Mulitple Sports
