The Rising
3 Seasons • 26 Episodes
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8 Episodes
Serena Williams
Season 1 • Episode 1 • 24m • PG
Serena Williams, the girl from Compton, rose to become the greatest player in WTA history. Jackie Robinson changed baseball, and American sport, forever. Althea Gibson, she became the first black golfer on the LPGA Tour.
Lebron James
Season 1 • Episode 2 • 24m • PG
Basketballer LeBron James has thrilled and entertained millions of fans around the world, but James’s contribution to society goes way beyond his on-court endeavours. Gymnast Dominique Dawes became the first black gymnast to win an Olympic gold medal.
Tiger Woods
Season 1 • Episode 3 • 24m • PG
From controversy and scandal to greatness on the world stage, Tiger Woods was the most intimidating figure golf had ever seen and re-shaped the perception of who played the game.
Pelé
Season 1 • Episode 4 • 24m • PG
Pelé, an Afro-Brazilian, rose to become the greatest footballer in history. Modern rivals now jostle for his crown, but nobody has yet won more World Cups or scored more goals than Pelé.
Muhammad Ali
Season 1 • Episode 5 • 24m • PG
Muhammad Ali was one of the most powerful fighters in boxing, and one of the most powerful voices in sport. In 1991, American basketballer Earvin “Magic” Johnson was at the height of his powers when he was diagnosed with HIV.
Hank Aaron
Season 1 • Episode 6 • 24m • PG
Hank Aaron’s bid to break Babe Ruth’s iconic home run record laid bare the racial divisions of USA in the 1970s. Aaron was an icon of the civil rights movement, while being a beloved caretaker of the game’s image and its place in sporting culture.
Jonah Lomu
Season 1 • Episode 7 • 24m • PG
All Black Jonah Lomu turbocharged the professionalization of the sport of rugby. Cyclist Marshall Walter Taylor, better known as Major Taylor, had a career beset by racial prejudice when he became world champion in the one-mile sprint.
Usain Bolt
Season 1 • Episode 8 • 24m • PG
Usain Bolt made sprinting look easy, even when it wasn’t. No-one else has won the 100 and 200 metres double at an Olympic Games twice. Usain Bolt won it three times in Beijing, London and Rio.
9 Episodes
Simone Biles
Season 2 • Episode 1 • 24m • PG
Simone Biles' ability to conquer personal trauma means her greatness extends far beyond the sport she dominated like no athlete before her.
Jesse Owens
Season 2 • Episode 2 • 24m • PG
At the 1936 Olympics Jesse Owens disproved Adolf Hitler’s poisonous rhetoric, but as an African American he did not return home to a life befitting such a superstar.
Colin Kaepernick
Season 2 • Episode 3 • 24m • PG
Colin Kaepernick became a lightning rod for racial tension in the US when he took a knee in 2016 on an NFL field. Marcus Rashford has elevated himself beyond the status of most footballers.
The Salute, 1968
Season 2 • Episode 4 • 24m • PG
With black-gloved salutes, Tommy Smith and John Carlos brought world attention of civil rights. Before Tiger Woods, there was Charlie Sifford and Lee Elder.
Lewis Hamilton
Season 2 • Episode 5 • 24m • PG
The only black driver in F1 history has won the most F1 world championships, by any measure, Lewis Hamilton is a legendary figure. While sister Serena changed the game, it was Venus Williams who first broke the mold.
Willie Mays
Season 2 • Episode 6 • 24m • PG
Willie Mays led by example and there is an uncomfortable question to be asked about tennis pioneer Althea Gibson.
The Rooney Rule
Season 2 • Episode 7 • 24m • PG
The Rooney Rule promised fairer hiring practices in the NFL, but little has changed. When Siya Kolisi became the first black captain for the Springboks, his journey from abject poverty to a force underlines the transformative power of sport.
Michael Jordan
Season 2 • Episode 8 • 24m • PG
Michael Jordan’s mark of inspiration is all over the NBA but his legacy is a little more complicated. The inspiration Abebe Bikila gave would change forever the make-up of marathon fields around the world.
Naomi Osaka
Season 2 • Episode 9 • 24m • PG
Tennis superstar Naomi Osaka is one of a kind, a millennial icon a powerful figure in the civil rights movement and the most successful Asian tennis player in history.
9 Episodes
Joe Louis
Season 3 • Episode 1 • 24m • PG
Joe Louis was the first African American hero for all Americans. And it’s easy to see the similarities between Joe Louis and Lionel Rose, the first indigenous Australian to win a boxing world title.
Bubba Wallace
Season 3 • Episode 2 • 24m • PG
Bubba Wallace is changing NASCAR. Nobody in boxing history has knocked out more fighters than Archie Moore.
Florence Griffith Joyner
Season 3 • Episode 3 • 24m • PG
Florence Griffith Joyner captivated the world with speed and style. But with Flo-Jo there was always a but. Nicola Adams, the British boxer with style has turned being first into an art form.
Michael Johnson
Season 3 • Episode 4 • 24m • PG
Michael Johnson was the athlete of his generation. During his career, Kevin-Prince Boateng became the figurehead of football’s push to eradicate the sport of racism and demonstrated that the biggest sport on the planet still has a lot of work to do.
Ibtihaj Muhammad
Season 3 • Episode 5 • 24m • PG
This week on The Rising, Ibtihaj Muhammad’s pioneering work has inspired Muslim athletes the world over and Wilt Chamberlain the larger-than-life character of the NBA.
Arthur Ashe
Season 3 • Episode 6 • 24m • PG
This week on The Rising, African American tennis player Arthur Ashe and his commitment to social causes plus track star Allyson Felix, a symbol for women’s health.
Marvelous Marvin Hagle
Season 3 • Episode 7 • 24m • PG
World middleweight boxing champion Marvelous Marvin Hagle fights for belts and child welfare through the Laureus organisation while tennis sensation Coco Gauff brings the noise on the court and through the Black Lives Matter movement.
Black Lives Matter
Season 3 • Episode 8 • 24m • PG
Sport was integral to civil rights in the 50’s and 60’s and it's a driving force today in the Black Lives Matter movement. The story of Cal Bruton, the American basketballer who paved a way for other black athletes making a move down under.
Nelson Mandela
Season 3 • Episode 9 • 24m • PG
Nelson Mandela brought unity to the South African sporting scene after the abolishment of apartheid and basketball revolutionary Bill Russell, the first black man to coach an NBA team.