Sports are the pinnacle of human drama, and the Olympics are the peak of sporting events. Logically, then, movies about the Olympics are some of the most stirring, thrilling and plainly inspirational you’ll find. We’re not saying they’re the best sports movies necessarily – we’ve got a whole other list for that – but when it comes to whipping viewers into a patriotic froth, the best films about the global games do it better than almost anything else.
Of course, there is a dark side to the Olympics, both socially and historically, as reflected in top-shelf movies like Munich and Foxcatcher. But for the sake of this list, and stoking excitement for the upcoming Paris games, we’re sticking with the thrilling, the soul-stirring and the inspirational movies to tackle the Olympics – in both their summer and snowier guises. Here are nine of our favourites.
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Zátopek (2021)
Every country has its Olympics heroes. In the Czech Republic it’s Emil Zátopek, a long-distance runner who defied the odds to win triple gold at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. As charted in this stirring and colourful biopic, Zátopek (Václav Neužil) had the kind of mischievous eccentricity and drive you probably need to run endlessly in giant loops – and a romantic spirit that manifests in a touching romance with Dana, a champion javelin thrower. Well worth, ahem, tracking down on streaming, it’s a lesser-told story with excellent recreations of the Olympics finals themselves.
Chariots of Fire (1981)
The melodramatic Vangelis theme song is one of the most famous in film history, to the point of nearly eclipsing the movie itself in public consciousness. (And that’s saying something, considering the movie won the Oscar for Best Picture.) But don’t discount the emotional resonance of this story of two British runners training for the 1924 games, who see the sport as a form of salvation, in both the spiritual and societal sense. It’s a slow burn, but give it time, and it will move your soul, as well as your feet.
Cool Runnings (1993)
Yes, it actually happened: in 1988, a bobsledding team from the notably un-wintry climes of Jamaica really did qualify for the Winter Olympics. Almost everything else in this feelgood Disney flick is made up, but no matter. It persists as an eminently enjoyable family-friendly comedy, thanks to its easy-to-embrace underdog narrative and the lively performances from both Doug E Doug as the team leader and John Candy, in his penultimate role, as their gruff coach.
Miracle (2004)
Even if you don’t care a lick about the Olympics, hockey, America or sports in general, you’ve probably heard of the ‘Miracle of Ice’, in which the US men’s ice hockey team upset the Soviet squad to win the gold medal at the 1980 winter games. Sure, Disney’s version of events, starring Kurt Russell, is stuffed with sports movie clichés. But then, the actual event is like a real-life Disney movie, anyway. No matter how cynical you think you are, don’t be surprised to find yourself leaping off the sofa by the end.
Olympia (1938)
Separating art from intent is especially difficult when considering the work of Leni Riefenstahl, Adolf Hitler’s go-to filmmaker. But as with her most famous piece of Third Reich propaganda, Triumph of the Will, the cinematic innovations contained in this document of the 1936 Berlin games cannot be easily disregarded. Employing a visual style as athletic as the competition itself, Riefenstahl captured the glory of the Olympics in a way that’s influenced its coverage ever since. And while its financial backers may have hoped to showcase German genetic superiority, she gives the historic dominance of Black American sprinter Jesse Owens the heroic framing it deserves.
Tokyo Olympiad (1965)
If a Riefenstahl doc stills feel too soon, with all its Aryan pageantry and Nazi iconography, try Kon Ichikawa’s official documentary of the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics. The Japanese fimmaking great swaps Fires on the Plain for anguish on the track as his impressionistic camerawork captures the losing athletes as well as the champions, zeroing in on the sheer balletic athleticism of the men and woman vying for gold. No wonder it has pride of place official Paris Olympics website.
Without Limits (1998)
The charismatic life and tragic death of American long-distance runner Steve Prefontaine inspired two biopics in the ’90s, the first of which, 1997’s Prefontaine, is probably better remembered. But writer-director Robert Towne’s version, starring Billy Crudup, better illuminates what made Pre, for a time, the most famous track star in the country, following him from college to the 1972 Summer Olympics to the auto accident that killed him at age 24. It also features a great, forgotten Donald Sutherland performance as his ever-dedicated coach, Bill Bowerman.
Downhill Racer (1969)
Most movies about Olympic athletes are inspired by actual Olympians, but The Bad News Bears director Michael Ritchie’s study of a fictional skiing champion says more about their lives and motivations than many of them. Robert Redford is the supremely cocky downhill racer of the title, whose mix of ‘tude and talent chafes his coach, played by Gene Hackman. The acting is predictably superb, the action scenes are thrilling, and the script is thoughtful about the somewhat miserable existence many competitors lead in the pursuit of perfection. How the film ended up completely memory-holed after release is hard to fathom.
The Boys in the Boat (2023)
Call it ‘the Miracle on Water’: in 1936, in the midst of the Great Depression, the underfunded University of Washington rowing team scraped together enough money to travel to the Summer Olympics in Berlin and upset the Germans right in front of Adolf Hitler. As director, George Clooney brings a refined approach to a truly incredible story, turning in a solid dad movie that younger generations can still draw inspiration from.
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