The 20 Best Films About the Summer Olympics. In this series of sports-themed articles, we’ll be reviewing the best sports films from auto racing and baseball to tennis and surfing. These Best Of lists will include both popular and lesser-known films from a specific sports film subgenre and our plan is to release each list monthly near a major sporting event.
Though the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles is three years away, it’s summertime and there’s no better time to review some of the best films about athletes attaining Olympic glory. The Summer Olympics includes a variety of competitive events from popular sports such as Boxing, the Pentathlon and Swimming to obscure sports including Equestrian events (i.e. horse show jumping), Fencing and Water Polo. For all of these sports, we’ve compiled a list of must-see films that feature both individual and team Olympic achievements from Jesse Owens’ historic win at the controversial Olympics held in Berlin in 1936 to the Soviet Union’s Men’s Basketball team’s controversial upset of the U.S. Men’s Basketball team at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Once we’ve completed the list of best films by individual sport, we’ll have a cumulative article with the absolute 50 best sports films. For now, you can view our tentative schedule below and we’ll try to fit in some articles for some other sports such as Volleyball and Rowing that aren’t typically depicted in many films:
- Best Films About Football
- Best Films About Baseball
- Best Films About Surfing
- Best Films About Basketball
- Best Films About Summer Olympic Sports
- Best Films About Soccer
- Best Films About Running
- Best Films About Tennis
- Best Films About Auto Racing
- Best Films About Hockey
- Best Films About Wrestling
- Best Films About Boxing, MMA & Competitive Martial Arts
- Best Films About Winter Olympic Sports
- The 50 Best Sports Films
For our rankings we’re going to use some criteria to help define and refine our list. First, the film must primarily be about the summer Olympics. We will use broad criteria here as quite a few films about the Olympics don’t show performances at the actual Olympic event (likely due to a film’s budget). We’ll also include films that feature events such as gymnastics that typically feature a National Championship that are pre-qualification tournaments for the Olympics.
Second, the more sports action is shown in the film, the higher it will rank on our list.
Third, the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich has the most films about this specific Olympic sporting event. Unfortunately, this is due to the Munich Massacre where a Palestinian militant organization took hostage and eventually killed 11 Israeli athletes. As a result, we will only include films for our rankings that focus more on the sport itself during these Olympics such as Prefontaine (1997) and Without Limits (1998). However, we will include in our honorable mentions below films that focus on the terrorist act at the Munich Olympics in films 21 Hours at Munich (1976), Munich (2005) and September 5 (2024).
Fourth, for this specific article, we won’t include films about the Paralympics or Special Olympics but will highlight some of the better films focused on these competitions in a future article. However, we would encourage fans of any sports to check out some recommended films about the Special Olympics including Pumpkin (2002), The Ringer (2005) and Champions (2018) and a few films worth watching about the Paralympics from The Best of Men (2012) to Gold (2024).
Fifth, though most films involving the Summer Olympics typically feature track and field events such as the 100m race and marathon, we do want to include as many sporting disciplines as possible. So, a film such as Jappeloup (2013), which is biopic about Pierre Durand, Jr. and his horse, Jappeloup at the Equestrian events in Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988, will be ranked higher since it focuses on an obscure event of the Olympics. It also helps that it’s a great film and one we highly recommend for fans of the Olympics.
Sixth, no Gymkata (1985). We get it – Gymkata is a ‘so bad, it’s good’ cult classic starring former U.S. Olympic gymnast Kurt Thomas. But just because the film features a random pommel horse in a rural village in the fictional Soviet-satellite country of Parmistan, is still not enough to warrant inclusion on our list.
And seventh, we had to follow our rule for all of KBZ’s film listings where we only list films that have a 4.0/10 or higher rating and were released after 1970.
Our complete list of Sports Dramas features over 587+ films from 1942 – 2024 and our complete list of Sports Comedies features over 254+ films from 1968 – 2024. Though we don’t yet break down films by sports discipline, we will list every individual sport-related film in their respective articles. You can also subscribe to our newsletter to get updated as we release future articles on each sport and add the latest and greatest subgenre films to our collection.
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The 20 Best Films About the Summer Olympics
Films About the Munich Massacre: 21 Hours at Munich (1976), Munich (2005) and September 5 (2024).
Recommended films about the Paralympics: The Best of Men (2012), My Annoying Brother (2016), Pulse (2021), Zero to Hero (2021) and Gold (2024).
Recommended films about the Special Olympics: Pumpkin (2002), The Ringer (2005), Champions (2018) and Champions (2023).
Films that didn’t make our list (and only for completists): The World’s Greatest Athlete (1973), Goldengirl (1979), Streets of Gold (1986), American Anthem (1986), Gloves of Stone (2009), A Second Chance (2011), Ghett’a Life (2011), Backwards (2012), Full Out 2: You Got This! (2020), Swimming for Gold (2020), Diva (2020), Streamline (2021), Tinnitus (2023) and Balestra (2024).
Honorable Mentions: International Velvet (1978), Running Brave (1983), Nadia (1984), Sylvester (1985), Split Decisions (1988), Pentathlon (1988), Finish Line (1989), The Comrades of Summer (1992), Prefontaine (1997), Perfect Body (1997), Endurance (1999), White Palms (2006), Stick It (2006), Children of Glory (2006), The Gabby Douglas Story (2013), Fair Play (2014), Full Out (2015), The Bronze (2016), The Hammer (2017), The Simone Biles Story: Courage to Soar (2018), Lee Chong Wei: Rise of the Legend (2018), Susi Susanti: Love All (2019), Gold (2020), Heart of Champions (2021), Dive (2022), Marinette (2023) and Bionic (2024).
Ranks 20-1:
#20 Running (1979) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#19 The Final Game (2022) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#18 Big George Foreman (2023) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#17 Free Falling (2024) Where to Stream / Buy: N/A
#16 Olga (2021) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#15 Berlin ’36 (2009) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#14 Unbroken (2014) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#13 Young Woman and the Sea (2024) Where to Stream / Buy: Disney+
#12 Peaceful Warrior (2006) Where to Stream / Buy: YouTube
#11 The Fire Inside (2024) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#10
Three Seconds
Plot: At the historic Munich Olympics, the Soviet Union’s basketball team tries to beat the American team. Unbeaten in the final, the tension remains until the last three seconds of the match.
KBZ’s Take: Documentaries including :03 From Gold (2002) and books such as Three Seconds in Munich: The Controversial 1972 Olympic Basketball Final (2019) give a U.S focused viewpoint of one of the most infamous controversies in Olympics history that was seemingly fueled by Cold War politics. It’s an event that eventually paved the way for NBA players to appear in the Olympics with the first Dream Team in 1992.
Three Seconds, aka Going Vertical, takes a Russian viewpoint of the controversy and despite its very pro-Russian leanings, is a fascinating look at the controversial game. There’s some great Olympics basketball in this film despite its foundation in propaganda.
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Plot: Chris Cahill is a young athlete who competes unsuccessfully in the 1976 U.S. Olympic trials. She meets a more experienced lesbian track and field competitor, Tory Skinner, and their friendship evolves into a romantic relationship.
KBZ’s Take: Personal Best is one of the films on our list that doesn’t show events at the actual Olympics but does feature Olympic trials. It’s also a film focused on one of the most popular events in the Olympics – track and field.
While the film does have its share of sports action, it’s much more of a film about Chris Cahill (Mariel Hemingway), her relationships with both Tory Skinner (Patrice Donnelly) and Denny Stiles (Kenny Moore) and the expectations thrust upon her by her demanding coach, Terry Tingloff (Scott Glenn). It’s one of the best films of the subgenre that focuses on character development with some great performances from Hemingway and Glenn.
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Plot: During the height of the Great Depression, members of the rowing team at the University of Washington get thrust into the spotlight as they compete for gold at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
KBZ’s Take: Men’s Rowing is not an event that gets much publicity in the Olympics and is generally considered an Ivy League sport. However, from 2021 – 2023 there were two films focused on the improbable rise of an underdog rowing team to national prominence. The first, Heart of Champions (2021), stars Michael Shannon and wasn’t well received – both critically and commercially.
However, the second film, The Boys in the Boat, is one of the best inspirational films of the subgenre. Even though the film can be a bit predictable at times, it showcases some fascinating race footage between competing rowing teams and features some standout performance from both Joel Edgerton and Callum Turner.
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#7
Jappeloup
Plot: The life of Jappeloup de Luze, the French show jumping horse who won a gold medal at the 1988 Olympic Games in South Korea.
KBZ’s Take: When thinking of some exciting Olympics-based films to watch, Equestrian events wouldn’t be the first sport you would think would be worth watching. However, our low expectations of Jappeloup were greatly exceeded by this fascinating biopic about a man struggling with his destiny and the undersized horse, Jappeloup, who would go on to Olympic Gold.
As with most biopics, the true-life events (and outcome) are well known so a film like Jappeloup needs to lean into certain areas like character development and sports choreography. The film clears both hurdles from its heartwarming father and son relationship between Serge Durand (Daniel Auteuil) and Pierre Durand, Jr. (Guillaume Canet) to the very tense and exciting choreography of the show jumping events. It’s a film we highly recommend to fans of the subgenre and sports fans in general.
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#6
Foxcatcher
Plot: The greatest Olympic Wrestling Champion brother team joins Team Foxcatcher led by multimillionaire sponsor John E. du Pont as they train for the 1988 games in Seoul – a union that leads to unlikely circumstances.
KBZ’s Take: One of the few films on our list that is also a Psychological Thriller, Foxcatcher is another biopic about the U.S. Men’s Wrestling Team brothers, Dave Schultz (Mark Ruffalo) and the younger Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum), and their encounter with wrestling enthusiast and multimillionaire John du Pont (Steve Carrell).
We wouldn’t advise watching this film if you’re looking for an inspirational sports film or one filled with sports action (though the film does have some of the better scenes of real wrestling as a sport). But it is a film we would still recommend that shows the inner workings and paths athletes take to the Olympics with some amazing performances by Carrell, Ruffalo and Tatum.
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Plot: A prison inmate is recruited for the Olympic trials after showing near world record breaking time.
KBZ’s Take: A very special film though it’s hard to find. This TV Movie from 1979 was directed by Michael Mann and it shows. His innovative direction during the ‘race’ scenes makes watching someone run circles around a track exciting.
Peter Strauss also gives a command performance as a prisoner with a life sentence who only cares about running. It’s one of KBZ’s highest recommended sports films to see (along with its unique instrumental version of Sympathy to the Devil).
Additional Lists: Top Sport Drama Films You Haven’t Seen #1
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Plot: The film follows the life of famous 1970s runner Steve Prefontaine from his youth days in Oregon to the University of Oregon where he worked with the legendary coach Bill Bowerman, later to Olympics in Munich and his early death at 24 in a car crash.
KBZ’s Take: The story of Steve Prefontaine had two filmed version of his life released within a year of each other – Prefontaine (1997) and Without Limits in 1998. Both films follow Prefontaine from his college days and his eventual death. And each film features great acting performances of Prefontaine by Jared Leto in Prefontaine and Billy Crudup in Without Limits.
We would advise watching both films, as though they are similar, they touch on different areas of Prefontaine’s life. But we will say that Without Limits is the much better film in our opinion with some exciting footage of Prefontaine (Crudup) running and a more interesting representation of coach Bill Bowerman played by Donald Sutherland.
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#3
The Swimmers
Plot: From war-torn Syria to the 2016 Rio Olympics, two young sisters embark on a risky voyage, putting their hearts and their swimming skills to heroic use.
KBZ’s Take: This is another film on our list, like Jappeloup (2013), that we didn’t have high expectations for but greatly exceeded them. It’s ultimately a film about the Syrian refugee crisis and one sister’s determination to do whatever it takes to swim in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Though the majority of the film deals with the trial and tribulations of the Mardini sisters, Yusra (Nathalie Issa) and Sarah (Manal Issa) as they flee war-torn Syria for Germany, it’s this suffering that makes the crowd pleasing final that much more impactful and special when it arrives. This is a film that will have you bouncing back and forth from heartbreak to joy and culminates in an experience you won’t soon forget.
Where to Stream / Buy: Netflix
Plot: In the class-obsessed and religiously divided UK of the early 1920s, two determined young runners train for the 1924 Paris Olympics. Eric Liddell, a devout Christian born to Scottish missionaries in China, sees running as part of his worship of God’s glory and refuses to train or compete on the Sabbath. Harold Abrahams overcomes anti-Semitism and class bias, but neglects his beloved sweetheart in his single-minded quest.
KBZ’s Take: It might come as a surprise that Chariots of Fire is not our #1 selection here as it’s widely considered the best film about the Olympics. It’s a film with 7 Academy Award nominations at the 54th Academy Awards and secured wins for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Costume Design and Best Original Score for a song that has endured (and been parodied) in countless films since.
Chariots of Fire is one of the best films about the spirits of the Olympics with underlying themes of politics and religion and the competition in both ideals and sport between Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) and Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson). It’s a must see film of the subgenre but we couldn’t, in good faith, put it above our next selection…
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#1
Race
Plot: Based on the true story of Jesse Owens and his eventual participation in the 1936 Olympics in Hitler’s Germany.
KBZ’s Take: We’re aware some people might disagree with our selection here, but we know a great film when we see it, and Race is the best film about the Summer Olympics. It’s also a great biopic about one of the greatest athletes in U.S. history – Jesse Owens.
From the film’s focus on the racial barrier both in the U.S. and at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, it’s a film the interweaves the discriminatory practices of the time from segregation to Hitler’s ideologies of Aryan supremacy. And despite these hurdles that Owens continued to face, the highlights of the film are in the recreation of the Berlin Olympics and the events that Owens participates in and wins.
Some might be put off by the film’s singular focus on the racial issues of the era, but for us, it only enhanced the competitive spirit of Owens and his driving force to show what America was striving to be in the face of Nazi oppression all at an event that was created to foster international cooperation and cultural exchange in the world.
Additional Lists: Top Sport Drama Films You Haven’t Seen #4
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
