Personal Best recounts the affair that unfolds between two female track and field athletes while they’re competing for spots on the 1980 U.S. Olympic team. Chris (Mariel Hemingway) is the young and naïve foil to her more experienced hero Tory (played by former Olympic hurdler Patrice Donnelly). The pair spend the film trying to reconcile their two relationships—that of lovers and competitors—only to watch their romance sour. America’s boycott of the 1980 Olympics leaves them with no chance at medals, and their “personal bests” become their only symbols of achievement. Upon release, several critics praised the movie for exploring lesbian relationships in sport, as well as unpacking the conflict between love and ambition. When viewed today, though, the film’s themes simply don’t resonate. Its sex scenes aren’t explicit, but the gratuitous close-ups of women’s bodies as they train (and shower) distract from the story. Of course, those same scenes likely secured the film a place in the 80s zeitgeist.