Hayden Panettiere Had a Remarkable History With Sports on the Big Screen

The late actress left her mark on several beloved sports movies, from the football classic “Remember the Titans” to “Racing Stripes” and “Ice Princess.”

Hayden Panettiere attends the world premiere of Scream VI at AMC Lincoln Square Theater New York New York United States | IMAGO / Pacific Press Agency

Hayden Panettiere will be remembered for a career that unfolded almost entirely in front of an audience.

The actress, who died Sunday at 36, began working before she was a year old and eventually became known to millions as Claire Bennet on "Heroes," Juliette Barnes on "Nashville" and Kirby Reed in the "Scream" franchise. Her family confirmed her death through her representative. A cause of death has not been announced.

But for sports fans, another part of Panettiere's career stands out.

Long before some of the television roles that would make her a household name, Panettiere became a familiar face in sports movies. Football, horse racing, figure skating and competitive cheerleading all found their way onto her résumé, with several of those roles arriving during a remarkable stretch early in her career.

And it started with one of the most beloved football movies of its generation.

Hayden Panettiere Made an Early Impression in ‘Remember the Titans’

Panettiere was only 10 when she played Sheryl Yoast in the 2000 film "Remember the Titans," starring Denzel Washington and Will Patton.

Sheryl was the football-loving daughter of assistant coach Bill Yoast, played by Patton, and Panettiere managed to stand out in a movie packed with future stars. The cast also included Ryan Gosling, Wood Harris, Donald Faison and Kate Bosworth.

Years later, Panettiere could still remember exactly how she felt after auditioning for the role.

“I walked out feeling like I had gotten the job,” she recalled in a 2020 ESPN retrospective on the movie, adding that it was one of the rare auditions during her career when she had been so certain.

That confidence proved justified.

"Remember the Titans" became an enduring sports classic, and Panettiere's performance gave audiences an early glimpse of the screen presence that would define much of her career.

It was also only the beginning of her connection to sports films.

‘Racing Stripes’ and ‘Ice Princess’ Put Panettiere Back in the Sports World

Five years after "Remember the Titans," Panettiere landed two more sports-centered roles in the same year.

In "Racing Stripes," released in 2005, she played Channing Walsh, a teenager who dreams of becoming a jockey and ultimately rides Stripes, a zebra convinced he is destined to become a racehorse.

The role required more than simply acting around animals. Panettiere spent months in South Africa while making the movie and trained on horseback for the part. She told the Los Angeles Times that riding a zebra presented a completely different challenge because of the animal's unpredictable movement.

Then came an entirely different sport.

Panettiere played Gen Harwood, a talented competitive figure skater, in Disney's "Ice Princess," which was also released in 2005. The film starred Michelle Trachtenberg as Casey Carlyle, with Panettiere portraying one of her competitors.

Panettiere had to learn to skate for the movie, something she admitted did not exactly come naturally.

She joked at the time about moving almost directly from horseback training to the ice, saying she had learned skating “from scratch.”

The two movies showcased something that had been present in her work since "Remember the Titans": Panettiere could convincingly inhabit the competitive world surrounding a sport without losing the personality of the character at its center.

Panettiere Added Cheerleading to Her Growing List of Sports Roles

By 2006, Panettiere had another athletic role waiting for her.

She starred as Britney Allen in "Bring It On: All or Nothing," the third movie in the popular cheerleading franchise. Her character goes from captain of her school's cheerleading squad to trying to earn a place on a new team after her family moves.

The movie arrived the same year Panettiere debuted as Claire Bennet on NBC's "Heroes," the role that would propel her to another level of fame.

There was a fitting bit of overlap.

After spending years playing characters connected to football, horse racing, figure skating and competitive cheerleading, Panettiere became a television star playing a cheerleader with extraordinary abilities.

Her career would ultimately stretch far beyond sports. "Heroes," "Nashville" and "Scream" became defining chapters, and her performance as Juliette Barnes on "Nashville" earned her two Golden Globe nominations.

Yet for a generation that grew up watching sports movies in the 2000s, Panettiere had already become part of some unforgettable ones.

From the sidelines in "Remember the Titans" to horseback in "Racing Stripes," onto the ice in "Ice Princess" and finally back into a cheerleading uniform, sports occupied a remarkable corner of a career that began remarkably early and ended far too soon.