History Main / SportsHeroBackstory

** In ''VideoGame/MetalGear'', MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter Ellen Pettrovich is a former Bolshoi ballerina.
** ''VideoGame/MetalGear2'' has Running Man, an Olympian who had a world-record time at the Men's 100m Sprint, but when the sports world kicked him out for doping he became a mercenary; and Natasha/Gustava, who was a former Olympic ice skater who became a secret policeman in order to reunite with a soldier she met at the Olympics in Calgary.

** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'', Senator Armstrong was a former college football champion quarterback from the [[EverythingIsBigInTexas Texas State University]].

** MVP from ''ComicBook/AvengersTheInitiative'' was a rising college athletic star who also happened to be a descendent of Dr. Erskine, the scientist who created the serum that gave ComicBook/CaptainAmerica his powers. When his heritage was discovered, people began to suspect that his above-average stats were the result of a serum, and he was stripped of his scholarship, banned from competing, and forced to register under the Superhuman Registration Act. Adding injury to insult, [[spoiler:he was killed during a training accident, and his body was cloned multiple times to be exploited for black ops work]].
** In one telling of his backstory, ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'' villain Bullseye was an amazing baseball pitcher in high school and was even offered a scholarship but opted to go to the Minor Leagues. He was so impressive that after a few games he went right to the Major League, where after doing amazingly, he got bored and decided to kill a player on the opposing team with a baseball. A big part of Bullseye's character is that he's AxCrazy and doesn't care about money ([[PsychoForHire even his work as an assassin is just a means to the end of killing people]]).
** In ''ComicBook/TheOrder2007'', James Wa was an up-and-coming college baseball player before losing both his legs in a car accident.

** Fred Meyers, who is the B-list ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' supervillain Boomerang (sort of a poor man's Bullseye) grew up loving baseball in his native Australia and was for a time a Major League player known as an amazing pitcher. Unfortunately, he got into HookersAndBlow and after getting caught taking bribes to throw a game, was banned from the sport.

* MVP from ''[[ComicBook/AvengersTheInitiative The Initiative]]'' was a rising college athletic star who also happened to be a descendent of Dr. Erskine, the scientist who created the serum that gave ComicBook/CaptainAmerica his powers. When his heritage was discovered, people began to suspect that his above-average stats were the result of a serum, and he was stripped of his scholarship, banned from competing, and forced to register under the Superhuman Registration Act. Adding injury to insult, [[spoiler:he was killed during a training accident, and his body was cloned multiple times to be exploited for black ops work.]]
* In ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'', prior to discovering that his parents were supervillains and being forced to go on the run, Chase Stein was a varsity lacrosse player.
* In ''ComicBook/TheOrder2007'', James Wa was an up-and-coming college baseball player before losing both his legs in a car accident.
* In one telling of his backstory, DC Universe PsychoForHire Bullseye was an amazing baseball pitcher in high school and was even offered a scholarship, but opted to go to the Minor Leagues. He was so impressive that after a few games he went right to the Major League, where after doing amazingly, he got bored and decided to kill a player on the opposing team with a baseball. A big part of Bullseye's character is that he's AxCrazy and doesn't care about money (even his work as an assassin is just a means to the end of killing people).
* Fred Meyers, who is the B-list supervillain Boomerang (sort of a poor man's Bullseye) grew up loving baseball in his native Australia and was for a time a Major League player known as an amazing pitcher. Unfortunately, he got into HookersAndBlow and after getting caught taking bribes to throw a game, was banned from the sport.
* In ''ComicBook/BeforeWatchmen'', Dollar Bill is revealed to have once been a star football player in college before suffering a career-ending knee injury.

** On ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' Tony was a college basketball player who made it to the Final Four before he decided to become a police officer.

* In ''Film/{{Unbreakable}}'', David Dunn was a football star in his younger days, until a car accident puts an end to that career; it is later revealed that [[spoiler:he is largely invincible to injury, and faked being injured in the car accident as an excuse to quit the sport, because he girlfriend loathed it]].

* Creator/DorothyLSayers wrote of Literature/LordPeterWimsey's early life that he was a top cricketer in college. It becomes plot-relevant in ''Murder Must Advertise'', where he is working undercover, and his cover is almost blown due to the sports fame of his younger days.
* Literature/JesseStone was on track to become a professional baseball player until a career-ending injury led him to law enforcement.

* ''VideoGame/Overwatch'' has both heroic and a villainous examples with Zarya and Doomfist, who were an Olympic weightlifter and MMA fighter, respectively, before [[RobotWar the Omnic Crisis]].

* In ''ComicBook/TheOrder'', James Wa was an up-and-coming college baseball player before losing both his legs in a car accident.