Olympic Sports Fiction Books and Movies

[rlayt]

There has been some decent fiction and some bit made it into movies and series.

Jennifer Iacopelli wrote “ finding Her Edge” which was adapted into a Netflix series. The book was good but the Netflix series’ skating scenes aren’t good at all. If this is the best the producers, actors, etc don’t seem to have any respect for the sport.

“Spinning Out”, another Netflix series about skating, seemed to take it much more seriously.

 

[rlayt]

Jennifer Iacopelli wrote a gymnastics book, “Break the Fall”, which is darn good compared to a lot of the cheesy stuff and tropes like gymnast to hip hop dancer. At least the romance is with a boarder instead of a hip hop guy.

 

[rlayt]

Would people watch a Heated Rivalry type tv show if the athletes were gymnasts instead of hockey players?

Or figure skating?

Or is it about the juxtaposition of manly athlete vs stereotype? I think it could work if they played up the athleticism of the gymnastics or how hard the sport is.

 

[RichardL]

There have already been plenty of out male gymnasts, so it's less of a taboo in the community and therefore less at stake narratively in terms of a fictional show. But I would happily watch lol

 

[Denn]

Yeah, a decent number of them now. I don't know of any gymnasts dating each other, though.

But also, gymnastics doesn't have a professional league like this where players make millions. And I think that context is part of the allure of this series for some people.

 

[makam]

Would people watch a Heated Rivalry type tv show if the athletes were gymnasts instead of hockey players?

Or figure skating?

Or is it about the juxtaposition of manly athlete vs stereotype? I think it could work if they played up the athleticism of the gymnastics or how hard the sport is.

Only if they did a good job faking the gymnastics and training stuff. A show that shows the sport even reasonably accurately would be a huge change.