Sports Stories

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.

See also:
 * Gaming and Sports Anime And Manga
 * Professional Wrestling
 * Sports Game

American Football

 * Eyeshield 21

Association Football

 * Area no Kishi
 * Captain Tsubasa
 * Ginga E Kickoff
 * Inazuma Eleven
 * Hungry Heart Wild Striker

Baseball

 * Dorabase
 * H 2
 * Kyojin No Hoshi
 * Major
 * Princess Nine
 * Ookiku Furikabutte
 * One Outs
 * Taishou Yakyuu Musume, a Girl gets angry a fiancé's sexist views and decides to Beat Him At His Own Game at baseball.
 * Touch

Basketball

 * Buzzer Beater
 * Dear Boys
 * Kuroko no Basuke
 * Slam Dunk
 * Ro Kyu Bu

Boxing

 * Ashita no Joe
 * Hajime no Ippo
 * One Pound Gospel

Figure Skating

 * Ginban Kaleidoscope
 * The Cherry Project

Gymnastics

 * Hikari No Densetsu

Judo

 * Dokaben
 * Yawara!

Racing

 * Arrow Emblem Grand Prix No Taka
 * Future GPX Cyber Formula
 * Initial D
 * Speed Racer

Tennis

 * Aim for The Ace
 * The Prince of Tennis

Volleyball

 * Attack No. 1
 * Attacker You

American Football

 * NFL Supepro

Racing

 * Michel Vaillant

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.

American Football

 * Any Given Sunday
 * The Blind Side
 * Facing the Giants
 * Friday Night Lights: The film based on the book of the same name.
 * Little Giants
 * The Longest Yard: Prisoners play football against their guards.
 * Necessary Roughness
 * North Dallas Forty: about the Dallas Cowboys
 * Remember the Titans
 * The Replacements
 * Rudy: The classic college football movie about the titular character and his struggle to play football for Notre Dame.
 * Varsity Blues
 * Wild Cats
 * The Waterboy
 * We Are Marshall is about rebuilding an American Football team after a plane crash.

Baseball

 * Angels in The Outfield
 * The Bad News Bears
 * Benchwarmers
 * Bull Durham
 * Damn Yankees: "I'd sell my soul for one long ball hitter."
 * Field of Dreams
 * For Love Of The Game: Kevin Costner's other baseball movie, about an aging pitcher who tries to throw a perfect game.
 * A League of Their Own is about women playing professional baseball.
 * Major League
 * The Natural
 * Pride Of The Yankees Gary Cooper plays Lou Gehrig in one of the most popular biopics ever made.
 * Rookie of the Year: A 12-year-old with a freak arm joins the Cubs.
 * The Rookie: A 40-year-old coach tries out for the Majors on a bet to the high school team he coaches.
 * The Sandlot: Kids playing baseball and having big adventures.

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.

Boxing

 * Cinderella Man
 * The Fighter
 * Million Dollar Baby an Oscar winning film about a female boxer.
 * Raging Bull
 * Rocky and all of its sequels.

Cricket

 * Lagaan

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

 * Bend It Like Beckham is the story of the daughter of a conservative Indian immigrant family in London, who dreams of becoming a football player against her parent's wishes.
 * Big Green
 * The Damned United
 * The Football Factory
 * Mean Machine
 * Mike Basset England Manager
 * The Miracle Of Bern
 * She's the Man
 * Victory (AKA Escape to Victory)
 * When Saturday Comes

Golf

 * Caddyshack: 1980 golf comedy.
 * Happy Gilmore
 * The Legend of Bagger Vance Magical Negro helps win golf game.
 * Tin Cup

Hockey

 * The Mighty Ducks
 * Miracle: The USA defeats Russia in Olympic Hockey.
 * Mystery, Alaska: A small town hockey team plays the New York Rangers.
 * Slap Shot: A failing small town team resorts to violent play to draw spectators.

Martial Arts

 * The Karate Kid
 * Mortal Kombat is based upon an (albeit highly fantastical) martial arts tournament.
 * Only the Strong: An Green Beret teaches Capoeira to underprivileged youth.

Racing

 * Days Of Thunder, the NASCAR racing film starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.
 * Driven
 * The Fast and The Furious series highlights the world of illegal street racing.
 * Speed Racer
 * Talladega Nights the Ballad of Ricky Bobby is a parody of NASCAR racing.
 * Grand Prix
 * The Love Bug series
 * Senna is a documentary about legendary Formula 1 driver Ayrton Senna.

Roller Derby

 * Rollerball
 * Whip It is about a beauty pageant contestant turned roller derby girl.

Skateboarding

 * Grind: A film about skateboarders trying to go pro.
 * Lords Of Dogtown: A biographical skateboarding film.

Tennis

 * Wimbledon

Other Sports

 * Bring It On: A series of films that focus on high-school cheerleading competitions.
 * By the Sword: A film centered around a fencing school.
 * Chariots of Fire: 1924 Olympic Runners.
 * Cool Runnings a film about the Jamaican bobsled team.
 * Dodgeball a True Underdog Story
 * The Hustler and its sequel The Color of Money: pool.
 * Kingpin a bowling comedy with Bill Murray
 * A Knight's Tale: Jousting
 * Men With Brooms: A Romantic Comedy about curling.
 * Searching for Bobby Fischer: Chess. It counts, dammit.
 * Swimfan: Someone likes swimmers just a bit too much.
 * Stick It: A film about gymnasts and rebellion.
 * Airborne: Rollerblading
 * Crooked Arrows: Lacrosse

Multiple Sports

 * Air Bud and its sequels are about a Golden Retriever playing sports.
 * Cheerleader Ninjas
 * Shaolin Soccer is Exactly What It Says On the Tin.
 * BAS Eketball a comedy that plays with most common sports movie tropes.

American Football

 * Friday Night Lights: The chronicle of the Odessa, Texas high-school football team, the Permian Panthers.

Baseball

 * Casey At the Bat
 * Moneyball

Football/Soccer

 * Unseen Academicals chronicles the exploits of wizards playing football.
 * Fever Pitch

Racing

 * The SERR Ated Edge series by Mercedes Lackey is about elves who race cars.

Mulitple Sports

 * The Chip Hilton series

American Football

 * Blue Mountain State is about college football. And beer.
 * Coach a sitcom about the coaching staff of the Minnesota State University Screaming Eagles.
 * Friday Night Lights
 * Necessary Roughness

Baseball

 * Eastbound and Down
 * Wild Romance

Cricket

 * Bodyline

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

 * WMAC Masters: Martial arts soap opera.

Other Sports

 * American Gladiators
 * Backyard Wrestling
 * Make It or Break It focuses on gymnastics.
 * Wipeout centres around obstacle courses.

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

 * Bowling King is about ten-pin bowling.

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 Mc Namara is a comic strip about a former (American) football player who is now a sportscaster.

Football/Soccer

 * Tokimeki Memorial Drama Series Vol.1: Nijiiro no Seishun is a Visual Novel telling the story of a Soccer Club player aiming at becoming a regular in his team, all while being cheered by the club's cute manager and developping a romance with her.

Football/Soccer

 * AH World Cup is a Scrapbook Story following an alternate world FIFA World Cup. Unlike most of the other examples, it follows the entire tournament instead of a single player or team.

Basketball

 * The Super Harlem Globetrotters

Football/Soccer

 * Foot 2 Rue
 * Galactik Football
 * Hurricanes

Racing

 * Cars
 * Hot Wheels
 * Pole Position
 * Metajets
 * Michel Vaillant cited above had an Animated Adaptation.
 * NASCAR Racers is about two rival racing teams.

Mulitple Sports

 * Mutant League