If you ask a random person on the street what the most popular sport is, the answer might depend on your location. In the United States, the answer might be football or baseball, in Australia, the answer might also be football, which is a completely different sport than our football, it’s what we in the U.S. call soccer. In India, it might be cricket. But would any country name swimming?
I started thinking about that the other night when I was watching a very famous movie, a true classic that I had never seen before, “National Velvet” starring a beautiful, 12-year old, Elizabeth Taylor, in her very first acting role, considered her breakout performance. Also starring Mickey Rooney, Angela Lansbury and Anne Revere as Elizabeth’s mother, Mrs. Brown. I had, of course heard about the movie “National Velvet,” my whole life, as a 62 year old woman. I knew it was a story about a girl and her horse. It won two Oscars in 1945.
“When Velvet Brown (Elizabeth Taylor), an equine-loving 12-year-old living in rural Sussex, becomes the owner of a rambunctious horse, she decides to train it for England’s Grand National race. Aided by former jockey Mi Taylor (Mickey Rooney) and encouraged by her family, the determined Velvet gets her steed, affectionately called “The Pie,” ready for the big day. However, a last-minute problem arises with the jockey and an unexpected rider must step in as a replacement.”
While watching the movie last night, I was excited when it was revealed that was that Velvet’s Mother (Anne Revere) was a champion swimmer, becoming the first woman to swim the English Channel, winning a hundred golden sovereigns. This becomes key to the story as Velvet needs it for the entry fee to compete in the Grand National Horse Race.
After watching “National Velvet, it made me think of other movies and even TV shows that were NOT about swimming or other aquatic sports yet somehow, swimming found its way into the story. What about “Back to School” with Rodney Dangerfield? Nothing more classic than his diving scene and the “Triple Lindy” in that movie! We even had the clip in the Hall of Fame Museum. I know, I’m showing my age.
Okay, back to the present, what about the popular TV Show, “Never Have I Ever?” The heartthrob of this hit show, is Paxton Hall-Yoshida, a popular, athletic 16-year-old high school student, who is the captain of the high school swim team, but has to give it up after a car accident. After graduating, he attends Arizona State University, but later becomes an assistant swim coach at the high school upon deciding university is not for him.
There’s more: “The Big C”, “Pretty Little Liars”, “Star Crossed”, “The Thirteenth Year’ and many more……
What about you? Can you name a movie or TV Show, that you love, that has swimming or any of the aquatic sports in it, but swimming isn’t the theme of the movir of TV Show??
Maybe, swimming IS more popular than we think!!!!!!
Tell us in the comments a movie or TV Show that has swimming in it!