Copied athletic sports director (4)
I believe the answer is:
aped
'copied' is the definition.
('ape' can be a synonym of 'copy')
'athletic sports director' is the wordplay.
'athletic' becomes 'a' (this might be a standard abbreviation I've not previously seen).
'sports' becomes 'pe' (Physical Education).
'director' becomes 'd'.
'a'+'pe'+'d'='APED'
(Other definitions for aped that I've seen before include "Caricatured" , "Copied" , "Imitated, mimicked" , "Imitated like monkey" , "Imitated like primate" .)