Heated Rivalry matters in a sporting culture that still sidelines queer men

By Joe Sheldon, Postgraduate Researcher, Department of Sociology, Social Policy, and Criminology, University of Liverpool

Heated Rivalry, the HBO TV adaptation of the second book in Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series, rounded out 2025 as a surprise, word-of-mouth success. It captures the relationship between Shane (Hudson Williams) and Ilya (Connor Storrie), two professional male hockey players, over the course of almost a decade. Along the way the pair negotiate their feelings for each other against the backdrop of internal conflict, homophobia and a manufactured public-facing rivalry.

Heated…

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