Nine Movies And Shows That Runners Will Love This Holiday Season

With the holiday season at full blast and the new year just around the corner, there’s never been a better time to hit the brakes, slow down and relax on the couch.

For most of us during the holidays, that means a good movie or two.

Reviewing box office numbers over Christmas Day from the last 10 years, however, the numbers will tell you just how much Americans love the theater.

Total gross over that period has been $681 million, including a total of $63 million in 2023 and a single-day high of $103 million in 2015.

But alas, in the age of streaming, surfing through options is its own kind of never ending story. Don’t you worry. We’ve already done the leg work to offer you nine suggestions over the remaining days of 2024.

Here are nine movies or shows that the runner in your life will enjoy over the holidays.

Without Limits

The life of the late Steve Prefontaine was a hot topic in the late 90s, with two Hollywood films adapting his story for the big screen, including 1997’s ‘Prefontaine,’ which starred Jared Leto, and 1998’s ‘Without Limits,’ which starred Billy Crudup.

While there is a lot of quality to Leto’s interpretation of Prefontaine, Without Limits has stood up as the better film over the last 20-plus years.

Produced by Tom Cruise, the film outlines Prefontaine’s path from Coos Bay, Oregon, to the campus of the University of Oregon, where he became a legend and later went on to finish fourth in the Olympic 5,000 final in Munich in 1972.

Along the way, Prefontaine fought for athlete’s rights – perhaps becoming the first first advocate for NIL – and set person bests of 3:38 in the 1,500m, 3:54 for the mile, 13:21 for 5,000 meters and 27:23 for 10,000 meters before his tragic passing from a car crash in 1975.

To this day, Prefontaine’s legacy lives on.

Sprint: The World’s Fastest Humans

The world of track and field was given a two-season, 10-episode run on Netflix leading into the Paris Olympics. Sprint features vignettes of Olympians like Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson, Fred Kerley and Gabby Thomas, Zharnel Hughes and Shericka Jackson, plus a few more world-class stars.

The 2024 series has its moments, from a cowboy-hat wearing Kerley on the back of a 4-wheeler in season one, to Lyles’ many braggadocious thoughts throughout, to the payoff of a few athlete’s dreams in Season 2 with Olympic golds on the line.

But it’s not the deepest documentary in the books – in fact, many of its scenes are just re-hashes of former competitions, with some added insight from its athletes.

At the very least, it’s worth a watch to learn just how your favorite track stars tick.

Unbroken

The full telling of Louie Zamporini’s life is portrayed here, beginning first through the lens of his track and field success at the 1936 Summer Olympics in the 5,000 meters, before moving on to his military service for the United States, which saw the California native become a pilot and a war hero by surviving various Japanese prison camps during World War II.

Adapted by the Coen brothers – the book Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption originally published in 2010 by Laura Hillenbrand – and directed by Angelina Jolie, Zamporini’s story was deserving of the Hollywood treatment.

‘Unbroken’ does its source material well by tackling tough subjects and exemplifying Zamporini’s strength, courage and fight.

McFarland, USA

The 2015 film, based on a series of articles in The LA Times and Sports Illustrated from the 1990s to the 2000s, tackles the motivational story of the McFarland High School boys cross country program, a team which consisted of Mexican-American and immigrant student-athletes, many of which whom worked in the fields before school to help provide for their families.

Kevin Costner portrayed the team’s coach Jim White, supplying them with confidence, determination and hope. The boys’ team won nine state titles over White’s tenure through 2002, including the program’s first win in 1987, the year which the film tackles. The film received positive reviews overall and currently sits at 80-percent from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

Personal Best

First premiering in 1982, this over 40-year-old fictional movie outlines the relationship between two female athletes, both pentathletes, as they work to reach the national team.

Ahead of its time for dealing with LGBTQ topics in sports – the two leads engage in a match-like romance – the movie also cast Patrice Donnelly, who was an accomplished hurdler at the time and previously reached the Olympics in 1976.

Roger Ebert gave the film four stars and said of its execution, “It is a movie containing the spontaneity of life. It’s about living, breathing, changeable people and because their relationships seems to be so deeply felt, so important to them, we’re fascinated by what may happen next.”

Chariots of Fire

The only Oscar winner on this list, Chariots of Fire is one of those movies you must see at least once in a lifetime.

Telling the story of two British athletes from different backgrounds – one of Jewish immigrant descent and another of Christian faith – they both battle to reach the 1924 Olympics and tap into their full potential.

The 1981 movie deals with classism, heritage, and the human spirit, revealing just what lengths anyone will go through to reach a goal within sight.

9.79

Few documentaries have tackled the subject material of controlled substances so expertly, but ‘9.79,’ part of ESPN’s 30 for 30 film series, did just that in 2012, using Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson to outline the 1988 Seoul Olympics and all the controversy that followed.

Johnson, of course, is the main protagonist in that controversy, re-stirring the decades-old narrative by explaining just what happened before he was popped for the use of stanazolol, an anabolic steroid which was found in his urine after his world record time of 9.79 for 100 meters.

Jericho Mile

While not a perfect movie, there is a single factor that make this 1979 made-for-tv film about a prisoner vying for his spot on the line in the Olympics a work worth watching.

You should check it out based solely on the fact that Michael Mann, the director of legendary films like ‘Heat,’ ‘The Insider,’ and ‘Collateral,’ took on this project, the first of his directorial career, at the age of 36.

Like most Mann movies, you’ll notice the fleshed-out character profiles, scene-setting and overall maintenance of story structure. The story follows a prisoner as he learns of his true potential in the mile, which ultimately brings him closer to the U.S. Olympic Trials. Mann’s follow-up was ‘Thief,’ an underrated crime film, just two years later.

The Life And Trials of Oscar Pistorius

The rise and fall of South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius, who became the first double-amputee in history to qualify for the Olympics, is a tragic tale of a fallen hero.

The 2020 documentary, a four-part series by ESPN’s 30 for 30 program, covers Pistorius’ life in full form, including the highly-publicized trial surrounding the death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013, and captures voices from all around his inner circle.

Pistorius served 11 years in jail for his conviction and was released in January of 2024.

This post was originally published on here