Dave, Mike, Cyril, and Moocher are working-class friends in the university town of Bloomington, Indiana who graduated from high school the year before, aren't sure what to do with their lives, and consider attending university unrealistic. They spend time swimming in an abandoned water-filled limestone quarry and sometimes clash with the more affluent Indiana University students in their hometown, who refer to them disparagingly as "cutters," referring to the locals' common work in the limestone industry. Dave is obsessed with competitive bicycle racing, Italian racers in particular, because he recently won a Masi bicycle. His down-to-earth father, Ray, a former stonecutter who now operates his own used car business, is puzzled and exasperated by his son's love of Italian music and culture, which Dave associates with cycling. His mother, Evelyn, is more indulgent and prepares Italian dishes for the family, to Ray's annoyance. Dave masquerades as an Italian exchange student to romance a university student named Katherine, and serenades "Caterina" outside her sorority house with Friedrich von Flotow 's aria M Apparì Tutt' Amor to Cyril's guitar accompaniment. Katherine's boyfriend, Rod, and his fraternity brothers beat Cyril up, mistaking him for the suitor. Mike, a former high school football quarterback, insists on tracking down Rod for revenge over Cyril's objections. The university president reprimands the students for their arrogance toward the "cutters" and, over the students' objections, invites the town to field a team for the annual Indiana University Little 500 race. An Italian cycling team comes to town for an exhibition race and are annoyed by Dave's challenge to their preordained victory. They force him to crash. Despite the disillusionment this causes him, Dave is persuaded by his friends to join them in racing the Little 500. Ray privately tells his son how, when he was a young stonecutter, he was proud to help build the university but never felt welcome on campus. Dave, having confessed his deception to Katherine, patches things up before she leaves for a job in Chicago. Dave, the only skilled cyclist among his friends, rides most of the Little 500 without a break unlike the other teams, which switch riders. He gains a small lead, but is injured in a crash and comes in for a change. Mike, Cyril, and Moocher are unable to keep pace with the field. Dave has his feet taped to the pedals, committing him to finish the race himself, makes up the lost ground, and overtakes Rod on the last lap to win, beating out Rod's favored fraternity team. Ray is proud of his son and takes to riding a bicycle himself for his health. Dave enrolls at the university, where he extolls the virtues of the Tour de France and of French cyclists to a pretty French exchange student. His father shows a look of surprise and dismay when Dave says "Bonjour Papa" while bike riding with the French student.

In 1967, Burt Munro is a sort of folk hero in Invercargill, known for his friendly easy-going personality, for having the fastest motorcycle in New Zealand and Australia, and for being featured in Popular Mechanics magazine. However, that recognition is contrasted by his exasperated next-door neighbours, some of whom are fed up with his un-neighbourly habits, such as revving his motorcycle early in the morning, urinating on his lemon tree and not mowing his grass. Burt, however, has a long-time dream; to travel to the US and test his motorcycle's capabilities at the Bonneville Speedway. However, while modifying his motorcycle, Burt suffers a heart attack. An ambulance takes him to the hospital and he is told he has angina, and is advised to take it easy and not to ride his motorcycle. Burt ignores this advice, and is given medication. Burt is finally able to save enough to travel by cargo ship to Los Angeles, working his passage as the cook, but when he arrives, he experiences bureaucracy, skepticism and the indifference of big city people. It is his blunt but gregarious nature which overcomes each hurdle. He wins over the motel clerk, a transgender woman named Tina Washington, who assists him in clearing customs and helps him in buying a car. Fernando, the car salesman allows Burt to use his workshop and junkyard to build a trailer, and later offers him a job after Burt fine-tunes a number of the cars on the lot. Burt declines the offer, however, and shortly afterwards begins his long trip to Utah. Along the way, Burt meets numerous helpful people, including highway police, a Native American man called Jake who aids him when his trailer fails, a woman named Ada who allows him to repair his trailer in her garage and briefly becomes his lover, and Rusty, an Air Force pilot who is on leave from military service in Vietnam. Burt finally arrives at the Bonneville Salt Flats, only to be blocked by race officials for not registering his motorcycle for competition in advance, and not having the mandated safety equipment. In a show of sportsmanship, however, various competitors and fans in the Bonneville series intervene on his behalf, and he is eventually allowed to make a timed run. Despite various problems, he succeeds in his quest and sets a new land speed record at the 8th mile of his run; when he reaches 201.851 mph (324.847 km/h). By the end, his leg is burned by the exhaust, and he then falls with the motorcycle and skids to a stop, but he is able to return home to New Zealand as a hero. An epilogue describes that Burt never gave up making his bike go faster, he returned to Bonneville nine times setting numerous records, and his 1967 record for streamlined motorcycles under 1000cc still stands.

The Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball have difficulty fielding competitive teams due to low revenue and owners who are reluctant to spend money. General manager Billy Beane drafts and develops cheap, young, and talented players, but the Athletics lose the 2001 American League Division Series (ALDS) to the New York Yankees, baseball's richest and most successful team. For the 2002 season, Beane is given a paltry $41 million budget. Through free agency, three richer teams poach three of Beane's best players: Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon, and Jason Isringhausen. Adding insult to injury, Giambi joins the Yankees. Beane is skeptical about traditional baseball scouting methods after the New York Mets drafted him in the first round of the 1980 draft —prompting Beane to decline a Stanford scholarship—only for Beane to have an unimpressive playing career. Beane tries to trade for the Cleveland Indians ' Karim García, but Cleveland refuses on the advice of team advisor Peter Brand, a Yale economics graduate who privately complains to Beane that Cleveland rarely takes his advice, and expresses a belief that baseball teams focus too much on individual players to have success. Intrigued, Beane asks whether Brand would have drafted him in 1980. After Brand reluctantly admits that he would not have drafted Beane until the ninth round, Beane hires Brand. Beane and Brand study sabermetrics, an unconventional scouting philosophy. Unable to afford more talented, expensive players, Beane and Brand focus on maximizing the team's on-base percentage (OBP) and compromise on skills like base stealing, defense, and batting average. They acquire undervalued players like aging David Justice, injured catcher Scott Hatteberg, and submariner Chad Bradford. Beane fires head scout Grady Fuson, who refuses to abandon his traditional scouting methods. A poor start to the season prompts the media and the team to question Beane's philosophy. Manager Art Howe, who is angling for a contract extension, disregards Brand's advice to put the players with the best OBP at the top of the batting order. Howe resists playing Hatteberg at first base, so Beane forces Hatteberg into the lineup by trading away Howe's favored first baseman Carlos Peña. Although Jeremy Giambi has good on-base skills, Beane decides that Giambi lacks the intangible qualities to succeed and trades him as well. Beane persuades team owner Stephen Schott to trust in the plan. With Cleveland performing poorly, Beane devises a trade for the Indians' star reliever Ricardo Rincón. The Athletics' performance improves, placing them on the verge of an AL -record-breaking 20th consecutive win. Although Beane rarely attends games, his daughter Casey persuades him to attend the next game against the Kansas City Royals. Oakland leads 11–0 when Beane arrives, but the Royals mount a furious comeback and tie the game. Hatteberg hits a walk-off home run to the Oakland fans' delight. Despite the celebration, Beane tells Brand he will not be satisfied until they have changed baseball by winning the World Series. The Athletics are the 2002 American League West champions but lose to the Minnesota Twins in the first round of division playoffs. A media analyst asserts that the Athletics lost because they lacked intangible qualities that cannot be measured with statistics. Later, Boston Red Sox owner John W. Henry offers Beane the largest contract for a general manager in history to take over the Red Sox organization. Beane discloses Henry's offer to Brand and says that their strategy failed. Brand shows Beane a video of batter Jeremy Brown, who hits a home run, but does not realize it. Sensing the meaning of the video and what Brand is trying to say, Beane thanks Brand. Beane drives while listening to a burned CD of Casey singing " The Show ", prompting him to cry. An epilogue reveals that Beane turned down the $12.5 million offer by the Red Sox, who used sabermetrics to win the 2004 World Series, while Beane has yet to win a World Series.

Aging former Formula One (F1) prodigy Sonny Hayes has spent the last 30 years living as a racer-for-hire, following a career-ending crash at the 1993 Spanish Grand Prix that has left him burdened by the failure to live up to his potential. After winning the 24 Hours of Daytona, he is approached by his former teammate Rubén Cervantes, owner of the struggling APXGP F1 team, who asks him to be their second driver. Rubén explains that unless APXGP wins one of the nine remaining Grands Prix of the season, his investors will sell the team. Sonny reluctantly agrees after Rubén insists that victory will prove he is the "best in the world". Sonny meets the team, including technical director Kate McKenna and ambitious rookie Joshua Pearce. Joshua fears that the failing APXGP could derail his career and aims to attract interest from another team. Sonny struggles with the modern F1 machinery but quickly diagnoses APXGP's weaknesses, proposing that the vehicles be upgraded with enhanced aerodynamics to compensate for their speed disadvantage. At the British Grand Prix, Sonny and Joshua compete against each other rather than cooperating, resulting in both crashing out. Acknowledging the team's need to secure a points finish, Sonny exploits the rules at the Hungarian Grand Prix by deliberately colliding with rivals to trigger safety car periods. This allows Joshua to close the gap to the frontrunners and secure APXGP's first top-ten finish. During the rain-affected Italian Grand Prix, Sonny advises Joshua to remain on slick tires, trading grip for speed and elevating him to second place. However, he ignores Sonny's instruction to wait for a straight before overtaking Max Verstappen, skids and flies off the track, while his car bursts into flames. Sonny rescues him, but Joshua is injured and misses the next three races. An increasingly arrogant Joshua returns at the Belgian Grand Prix and deliberately forces Sonny into a crash. Afterward, Sonny criticizes him for foolishly setting the team back for personal glory. Seeking to ease tensions, Kate organizes a poker game to highlight their similar backgrounds, after which Sonny and Kate spend the night together. He later admits to her that he races to recapture the rare moments when he feels untouchable. Following an anonymous tip alleging that Kate's car upgrades are illegal, APXGP is forced to remove them, leaving the team at a disadvantage. Frustrated—and realizing he has skipped his ritual of having a random playing card with him in the cockpit—Sonny drives recklessly during the Las Vegas Grand Prix and crashes. While he recovers, Rubén discovers that Sonny's 1993 injuries left him medically unfit for F1, with risks of blindness or death, and fires him for his own safety. APXGP board member Peter Banning then admits to Sonny that he orchestrated his signing and the anonymous tip to sabotage the team and force its sale, offering Sonny significant compensation to let APXGP fail. Meanwhile, Joshua begins applying Sonny's racing techniques, admits fault for his earlier crash, and recommits to the team. Concealing his blurred vision and headaches, Sonny persuades Rubén to let him return, just as the FIA clears Kate and restores her upgrades. At the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Joshua battles Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc for the lead. After Sonny is caught in a minor crash, the race is red-flagged, allowing APXGP to repair both cars before a three-lap sprint to the finish. On the restart, Sonny overtakes Leclerc and sacrifices his own chance of victory by holding off Hamilton so Joshua can move into first. On the final lap, Hamilton and Joshua collide, clearing the way for Sonny to take his first F1 win and secure APXGP's future. Joshua is offered a seat with Mercedes but declines. As the team celebrates, Sonny quietly prepares to leave, parting on good terms with Joshua and promising to see Kate soon. Some time later, he lines up for the Baja 1000. When asked what he is racing for, Sonny laughs.

Children Jacques Mayol and Enzo Molinari grow up in Amorgos, Greece in the 1960s. Enzo challenges Jacques to collect a coin on the sea floor but Jacques refuses. Jacques' father—who harvests shellfish from the seabed using a pump-supplied air hose and helmet —goes diving. His breathing apparatus and rope gets caught and punctured by rocks, and weighed down by water, he drowns in front of the children. By the 1980s, both are well known for their freediving skills. In Sicily, Enzo rescues a trapped diver from a shipwreck. He is a world champion freediver and now wishes to find Jacques and persuade him to return to no-limits freediving to prove he is still the better of the two. Jacques works as a human research subject with dolphins and is participating in research into human physiology in the lakes of the Peruvian Andes, where his bodily responses to cold water immersion are being recorded. Insurance broker Johana Baker visits the station and is introduced to Jacques. After hearing that Jacques will be at the World Diving Championships in Taormina, Sicily, she fabricates an insurance problem that requires her presence there, to meet him again. The two start dating. However, neither of them realizes the extent of Jacques' allure for the deep. Jacques beats Enzo by 1 metre, and Enzo offers him a crystal dolphin as a gift, and a tape measure to show the small difference between their respective records. Johana goes back home to New York but is fired after her deception is discovered; she leaves New York and begins to live with Jacques. She hears the story that mermaids appear to the ones who truly love the sea and lead them to an enchanted place. At the next World Diving Championships, Enzo beats Jacques' record. The depths at which the divers compete enter new territory, and the dive doctor suggests they should stop, to no avail. Jacques is asked to look at a dolphinarium where a new dolphin has been placed, and where the dolphins are no longer performing; surmising that the new dolphin is homesick, the three of them break in at night to liberate and return her to the sea. Back at the competition, other divers attempt to break Enzo's world record, but each fails. Jacques succeeds, reaching 400 feet (120 m). Angered by this, Enzo prepares to break Jacques' record. The doctor warns that the competitors must not go deeper, as the pressure becomes lethal at those depths. Enzo dismisses the doctor and attempts the dive anyway but is unable to return to the surface. Jacques dives to rescue him. Enzo, dying, tells Jacques that he was right and that it is better down there. He begs Jacques to help him back down to the depths, where he belongs. Distraught, Jacques refuses, and Enzo dies in his arms. To honor his dying wish, Jacques takes Enzo's body back down to a depth where the human body becomes negatively buoyant, and lets his friend sink into the depths. Jacques—himself suffering from cardiac arrest after the dive—is rescued by supervising scuba divers and requires his heart to be restarted with a defibrillator before being placed in medical quarters to recover. Jacques appears to be recovering from the diving accident but later experiences a hallucinatory dream in which the ceiling collapses and the room fills with water, and he finds himself in the ocean depths with dolphins. After discovering she is pregnant, Johana returns to check up on Jacques but finds him lying unresponsive in his bed with bloody ears and a bloody nose. Johana attempts to help him, but Jacques gets up and walks to the diving boat and gets suited up for one final dive. Desperately, Johana begs Jacques not to go, saying she is alive but whatever has happened at the depths is not, but he says he has to. She announces she is pregnant and begs Jacques to stay. However, she eventually lets him go. The two embrace and Johana breaks down crying. Jacques then places the release cord for the dive ballast in her hand, and—still sobbing—she pulls it, sending him down to the depths. Jacques descends and floats for a moment, staring into the darkness. A dolphin then appears, and Jacques lets go of his harness, swimming away with it into the darkness.

In 1988, Dottie Hinson attends the opening of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League exhibit at the Baseball Hall of Fame. She sees many former teammates and friends playing a game, prompting a flashback to 1943. With World War II threatening to shut down Major League Baseball (MLB), Chicago Cubs owner Walter Harvey persuades his fellow owners to bankroll a women's league. Ira Lowenstein is put in charge. Scout Ernie Capadino attends an industrial-league softball game in Oregon and likes what he sees in Dottie, the catcher for a local dairy. She is not interested and is happy with her life, waiting for her husband Bob to return from the war. Her younger sister, Kit Keller, however, is desperate to escape and make something of herself. Capadino is unimpressed by Kit's batting and refuses to watch her pitch but agrees to take her along if she changes Dottie's mind. Dottie agrees for her sister's sake. Dottie and Kit travel to Harvey Field (a fictionalized Wrigley Field) in Chicago for tryouts; en route, they force Capadino to accept homely second baseman Marla Hooch. They meet taxi dancer Mae "All-the-Way-Mae" Mordabito, her best friend, bouncer Doris Murphy, soft-spoken right fielder Evelyn Gardner, illiterate left fielder Shirley Baker, pitcher/ shortstop and former Miss Georgia beauty queen Ellen Sue Gotlander, left field/ relief pitcher Betty "Spaghetti" Horn, first baseman Helen Haley and Alice "Skeeter" Gaspers. They and five others constitute the Rockford Peaches, while 48 others make up the Racine Belles, the Kenosha Comets and the South Bend Blue Sox. The Peaches are managed by former star Cubs slugger Jimmy Dugan, a cynical alcoholic. He initially treats the whole concept as a joke, forcing Dottie to take over as on-field leader. Dugan is also abrasive toward his players. The team travels with Evelyn's spoiled, bratty son Stillwell and team chaperone Miss Cuthburt. With a Life magazine photographer in the stands, Lowenstein begs the players to do something spectacular, as the league has attracted little attention. Dottie obliges, catching a popped-up ball behind home plate while doing a split. The resulting photograph makes the magazine cover. A publicity campaign draws more people to the ballgames, but the owners remain unconvinced. The teammates bond. Marla marries a man named Nelson whom she met on a raucous roadhouse outing and leaves the team for the rest of the season, Mae teaches Shirley to read, and Evelyn writes a team song. Lowenstein promotes Dottie as the face of the league, making Kit resentful. Their sibling rivalry intensifies, resulting in Kit's trade to the Racine Belles. The Peaches end the season with the league's best record, qualifying for the World Series. Betty receives a telegram, informing her that her husband was killed in action in the Pacific Theater. Grief-stricken, she leaves the team. That evening, Dottie receives a surprise when Bob shows up, having been wounded and discharged from the Army. Jimmy discovers that Dottie is going home with Bob. Unable to persuade her to play in the World Series, he tells her she will regret her decision. The Peaches face the Belles in the World Series, which goes the full seven games. Dottie rejoins the Peaches for the seventh game, while Kit is the starting pitcher for the Belles. With the Belles leading by a run in the top of the ninth, Dottie drives in the go-ahead run. Kit is distraught, but gets a second chance when she comes to bat with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. She gets a hit and, ignoring the third base coach's sign to stop, collides with Dottie at the plate and causes her to drop the ball, thus scoring the winning run. The sellout crowd convinces Harvey to give Lowenstein the owners' support. After the game, the sisters reconcile before Dottie leaves with Bob. Back in the present at Cooperstown, Dottie is reunited with the other players – including Kit – Capadino and Lowenstein, and reveals that Bob died the previous winter. She also discovers that Jimmy died a year earlier, in 1987, and she meets a grown up Stillwell, who tells her that Evelyn died a couple years earlier. The surviving Peaches sing Evelyn's team song and pose for a photo. During the closing credits, they play baseball once again at Doubleday Field.

Louis "Louie" Zamperini is a bombardier in the United States Army Air Forces in World War II. An April 1943 bombing mission against Japanese installations on Nauru exposes him to danger. His B-24 Liberator is hit by enemy fire, a crewman is badly wounded, and the pilot, Phil, nurses the damaged aircraft to a stop just short of the end of the runway. In a flashback to his youth in Torrance, California, Louie misbehaves by stealing, drinking alcohol and smoking. He is often bullied by others for his Italian ethnicity. His brother Peter trains him to be an athlete and Louie becomes a disciplined distance runner, earning the nickname "The Torrance Tornado". He finishes 8th in the 1936 Summer Olympics and sets a record in the final lap for the 5,000-meter race. In his 1943 combat service, Louie flies on a search-and-rescue mission in a war-weary plane which loses engine power and crashes into the ocean. Louie, Phil and Mac are the only survivors. After 27 days adrift on two rafts, they're strafed by a Japanese fighter plane. Mac dies six days later. On the 47th day, Japanese sailors capture Louie and Phil. They become prisoners of war on Kwajalein Atoll and are interrogated for technical information on aircraft models and the Norden bombsight. Louie successfully navigates the interrogation without revealing important information, and the pair are transferred to Japan and split up. Louie goes to camp Ōmori, in Tokyo. Japanese corporal Mutsuhiro Watanabe is especially hard on Louie, beating him often. Louie is given an opportunity to broadcast a message home after learning the U.S. government classified him as KIA. He refuses to broadcast anti-American propaganda and returns to camp where Watanabe has each prisoner punch him. After two years, Watanabe leaves the camp, but when the prisoners are transferred to Naoetsu prison camp, Sergeant Watanabe is again in command. When Louie pauses during work of loading coal barges, he is punished by Watanabe, who makes him lift a large wooden beam and hold it over his head. The sergeant orders a guard to shoot Louie if he drops it, but the American defiantly holds it up despite his exhaustion. The enraged Watanabe beats Louie for defiantly staring into his eyes. The prisoners are liberated when the Americans occupy Japan at the end of the war. Louie looks in Watanabe's quarters, finding he's fled, and is transfixed by a photo of Watanabe as a child. Louie returns to America and kisses the ground, happy to be home. The film ends with a slideshow of contemporary photos showing the post-war lives of the characters. Louie married and had two children. Phil married. Mutsuhiro "The Bird" Watanabe went into hiding and evaded prosecution despite being on the top 40 most-wanted Japanese war criminals list compiled by General Douglas MacArthur 's staff. Louie lived out his promise to convert to Christianity, to devote his life to God and to forgive his wartime enemies. Louie met with many of his Japanese captors but Watanabe refused. Louie was honored by running a leg of the Olympic Torch relay for the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, four days short of his 81st birthday. His leg was near one of the POW camps where he was held. The closing titles reveal that Louie Zamperini died on July 2, 2014, at 97.

The film starts with Graeme Obree (Miller), who suffers from a depressive moment (which we learn is due to a crippling bipolar disorder), cycling into a wood where he attempts to hang himself. A flashback to Obree's (Sean Brown) childhood depicts him being physically attacked at school by other pupils, leaving the young Graeme with severe psychological scars. One day Obree is given a bicycle by his parents which we see Obree using to evade his bullies. As the film progresses, the adult Obree is now married to Anne with a child. In between competing in local races, he runs a failing bicycle shop and has to supplement his income as a bicycle courier. Graeme encounters Malky McGovern (Boyd), a fellow bike courier, who recognises Graeme and they become fast friends. While working in his shop an older gentleman called Baxter (Cox), asks Graeme to repair his old bike. Graeme agrees after roping Baxter into being the judge over a race with a local van driver. Graeme narrowly beats the driver but the van steers into him. Baxter takes an immediate liking to Graeme but feels a darkness in the younger man. Graeme decides to try to beat the hour record. However, he has neither the funding nor the quality of the bicycle required. Determined to succeed, he asks Malky to take over his management and fundraising from his wife Anne who is overwhelmed with work and raising their child. Baxter turns out to be a boatyard owner and offers Graeme and Malky his yard to build a fitting bike. Graeme sets himself 8 weeks to build a bike, raise funds for the challenge, and pay for access to a fitting velodrome. The driving force for such a tight deadline is due to Chris Boardman's attempt to break the record in the 9th week. Graeme manages to build a revolutionary prototype called Old Faithful, for maximum efficiency, made up of scrap metal and components from a washing machine. Malky chastises Graeme that they cannot attempt the record using Old Faithful as Boardman is going to be using a bike specially designed by computers and costing £500,000. Nevertheless, Malky, Anne, and Graeme arrive in Norway for their attempt, and Graeme is derided by officials. Malky reveals to Graeme that he has had a proper bike built based on the prototype of Old Faithful. Graeme grudgingly agrees to use the new bike but his first attempt at the record proves to be a failure and he comes up short. Graeme tells everyone he intends to go again as he has the velodrome booked for 24 hours. Due to the grueling nature of the 1-hour challenge, everyone cautions him against making a second attempt. Graeme devises a cunning way to prevent his body from seizing up and cramping and exercises throughout the night. The next morning he and Anne sleep in and rush to find Malky, who unknown to Graeme has rebuilt the bike using Old Faithful's parts. Graeme embarks on his attempts and this time is successful in beating the record. However, his victory is short-lived as his record is broken by Chris Boardman (Adrian Grove, credited as Adrian Smith) a week later. The Union Cycliste Internationale holds a meeting where they devise rules to discourage Obree from using his experimental bicycle in the future. Obree is severely depressed the night following his record-making ride. This is exacerbated when Boardman breaks the record. When Obree is confronted in a pub by the four bullies who had victimised him years earlier at school, he becomes completely withdrawn and rarely leaves his house. Baxter attempts to counsel him, but Obree feels betrayed when he discovers that Baxter is the pastor of a local church and the younger Obree is agnostic towards religion. He recovers enough to compete in the Individual Pursuit World Championship in 1993, in which he uses his bicycle design again. The UCI officials begin rigorously enforcing the new ruling, penalising him for riding in the "Tuck" stance that his bicycle design is intended to support. The physical and emotional exertion take their toll, and he crashes disastrously, breaking his arm. The plot then returns to the opening of the film. The rope Graeme attempts to use to hang himself breaks, and he is found by another cyclist who summons the authorities. Graeme initially resists treatment, until Baxter tells him about his wife, who also suffered from bipolar disorder and ultimately took her own life. At Graeme's request, his wife, Anne, a hospital nurse, agrees to help him begin treatment. Graeme later makes a comeback and regains the 1-hour record as well as his world title. The new bicycle configuration that he uses, which supports the "Superman" stance, is later banned by the UCI after eight riders win gold medals with it.