Passion, dreams, and team spirit are just a few words we can easily relate to when it comes to sports. With many highs and lows in an athlete’s career, one thing is constant- determination to fulfill their dreams. A popular genre for K-dramas, sports-related shows and their characters have won our hearts multiple times. Here’s a list of the top 10 Sporty K-dramas to inspire you to achieve your dreams!
1. Run On
Ki Sun Gyeom, played by Im Si Won (ZE: A), is an eccentric national-level sprinter who gives up his career due to legal issues. During this time, he meets a movie translator, Oh Mi Joo (Shin Se Kyung), a strong woman who puts herself first. After retirement, Sun Gyeom focuses on getting a junior athlete back on track, during which he learns many life lessons and grows, along with the people in his life. Im Si Won is super adorable as an oddball, while Mi Joo is the epitome of self-love. If you’re tired of toxic relationships, this refreshing love story is here for you.
2. Twenty-Five Twenty-One
Set in the backdrop of the South Korean financial crisis, two young people, Hee Do (Kim Tae Ri) and Yi Jin (Nam Joo Hyuk) struggle to fulfill or abandon their dreams in a heart-touching story of hopes, friendships, rivalries, and first love. Hee Do is a high-school fencer aiming for the national team who meets Yi Jin, a hard-working boy struggling financially. Full of ups and downs, both in their careers and relationship, these characters might find a permanent place in your heart!
3. Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo
Weightlifting Fairy stars Lee Sung Kyung as Bok Joo, a weightlifter who suddenly wants to be more feminine to find love, and Nam Joo Hyuk as Joon Hyung, a talented swimmer with emotional stress that is holding him back from reaching his full potential. From being friends to eventual lovers, Bok Joo and Joon Hyung train for national teams with their friends at a sports university.
4. Love All Play
Park Tae Joon (Chae Jong Hyeop) and Park Tae Yang (Park Joo Hyun) are two young people with a love-hate relationship with badminton. Once a legend, Tae Yang gave up on her badminton career with many rumors surrounding her retirement. Now, she comes back to the sport, much to the dismay of her colleagues. Tae Joon is a highly talented badminton player but lacks motivation for the sport due to always being overshadowed by his national-level player sister. Tae Yang and Tae Joon find ways to motivate each other and grow as athletes and lovers in this passionate drama.
5. Fight For My Way
Ko Dong Man (Park Seo Joon) and Choi Ae Ra (Kim Ji Won) have been friends since school. Now, as adults, their lives have not taken the path they wanted. Is there an age limit to achieving your dreams? Dong Man leaves his mundane job to retry to become a professional taekwondo player, while Ae Ra dreams big of being an anchor. They both realize that determination and hard work might not be enough to achieve their goals, but no one can stop them from fighting for their dreams.
6. Sassy Go-Go
In a highly competitive school where parents are obsessed with getting their children into Ivy-league colleges, they establish a cheerleading team to give them an edge in extra-curricular activities. The problem is that none of these studious students can dance, so the principal forces the dance team to join them and win a competition. The initial animosity between the rich and academic versus fun-loving kids eventually evolves into friendship and maybe even love in this hopeful drama about making mistakes when you’re young!
7. Racket Boys
Yoon Hyun Jong (Kim Sang Kyung) starts coaching a middle school boys’ badminton team only to realize that they are on the verge of disbanding. His wife, Ra Young Ja (Oh Na Ra), is the coach of the girls’ badminton team at the same school but they are among the top in the country. This coming-of-age story about young kids learning to be good players, friends, and people, as they grow up is an emotional roller coaster that will make you feel nostalgic!
8. Hot Stove League
Namkoong Min as Baek Sung Soo, is the new general manager of a failing baseball team that their parent company wants to eliminate. Meanwhile, Se Young (Park Eun Bin) is the passionate and hard-working operations manager of the team. Getting a look at the behind-the-scenes of sports teams, we see the story of underdogs and the dynamics between players and their staff that will touch your heart.
9. Prison Playbook
Kim Je Hyuk (Park Hae Soo) loses his baseball career and life when he goes to prison for assault. The prison guard is his childhood friend and fan, Lee Joon Ho (Jung Kyung Ho), who tries to help him as he navigates his new life among criminals. Prison Playbook is an emotional slice-of-life drama about the unlikely people we become friends with and the dimensions within those people. Melancholic and inspirational, this drama gives us some lessons on what it means to be a human among other humans.
10. To The Beautiful You
To pay back a debt, Jae Hee (Sulli) disguises herself as a man and takes admission at a boys’ high school to help Tae Joon (Choi Min Ho), who takes voluntary retirement from his high jump career due to emotional issues. Jae Hee admires Tae Joon because he had helped her through a tough time in her life so she is determined to do the same for him. An adaptation of the Japanese Manga ‘Hana Kimi,’ To the Beautiful You takes us on the journey of high school sports through romance, friendship, and comedy.
