''Fire on the Track: The Steve Prefontaine Story'' is a 1995 American

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...

documentary directed by Erich Lyttle and produced by Scott Chambers. It tells the story of Steve Prefontaine, an American middle and long-distance runner who set records in seven different distance track events from 2,000 to 10,000 meters. The documentary is narrated by Ken Kesey, and features interviews with

Phil Knight Philip Hampson Knight (born February 24, 1938) is an American billionaire businessman. He is the co-founder and chairman ''emeritus'' of Nike, Inc., and was previously chairman and CEO of the company. As of October 3, 2022, Knight was ranke ...

, Dana Carvey,

Brian Lanker Brian Lanker (August 31, 1947 – March 13, 2011) was an American photographer. He won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for a black-and-white photo essay on childbirth for ''The Topeka Capital-Journal'', including the photograph ...

Kenny Moore Kenneth Clark Moore (December 1, 1943 – May 4, 2022) was an American Olympic road running athlete and journalist. He ran the marathon at the 1968 and 1972 Summer Olympics, finishing fourth at the latter. Early life Moore was born in Portland ...

, Alberto Salazar,

Erich Segal Erich Wolf Segal (June 16, 1937January 17, 2010) was an American author, screenwriter, educator, and classicist who wrote the bestselling novel '' Love Story'' (1970) and its hit film adaptation. Early life and education Born and raised in a ...

, Frank Shorter,

Mary Decker Mary Teresa Slaney (formerly Tabb, née Decker, born August 4, 1958) is a retired American middle-distance runner. During her career, she won gold medals in the 1500 meters and 3000 meters at the 1983 World Championships, and was the world re ...

, Mac Wilkins, and

Lasse Virén Lasse Artturi Virén (born 22 July 1949) is a Finnish former long-distance runner, winner of four gold medals at the 1972 and 1976 Summer Olympics. Virén recaptured the image of the "Flying Finns" promoted by runners like Hannes Kolehmainen, Paa ...

, among others. It premiered on June 4, 1995, on CBS, and was directly followed by the network's live coverage of the 1995

Prefontaine Classic The Prefontaine Classic, an Oregon Track Club event, is one of the premier track and field meets in the United States, held in Eugene, Oregon. Every year it draws a world caliber field to compete at Hayward Field on the campus of the University o ...

. The documentary drew some criticism for its sanitization of Prefontaine's story and for being as much about the Nike corporation as it was about Prefontaine; it was entirely funded by Nike, and the company featured prominently in 15% of the 58-minute film.

References

American sports documentary films {{sport-documentary-film-stub