10 Sports Movies to Watch When You Miss the Olympics

Olympics hangover is a real phenomenon.

As the Paris games wind to an end, it’s natural to miss global competition, your new favorite athletes, and the compelling backstories which accompany them. Thankfully, a number of films capture the very sports we see in the summer games. And while they don’t all take place at the Olympics, they offer a similar marriage of contest and character.

Here are just 10 of the movies that can keep your Olympics fever going.

Spike Lee’s 1998 masterpiece “He Got Game” is practically symphonic, weaving themes of family fracture, desperation and fame’s perils into a basketball story about an incarcerated father (Denzel Washington) and his phenom son (now-retired NBA star Ray Allen). “He Got Game” is frustrating and beautiful and features perhaps the great one-on-one scene in movie history. Currently streaming: Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Disney+

Star Michael B. Jordan and director Ryan Coogler reinvigorated the Rocky Balboa universe with the 2015 film “Creed”, which not only went the distance but went on to inspire two sequels. Currently streaming: Amazon Prime, Apple TV, MGM+

The most farcical and perhaps the crudest entry on this list is “Tour de Pharmacy”, featuring Andy Samberg, John Cena, Orlando Bloom and more in a 2017 Tour de France mockumentary. Doping in sports has never been more hilarious or graphic. Currently streaming: Max

“The Gabby Douglas Story,” a 2014 drama, portrays an Olympic great, telling the story of the golden gymnast. Regina King leads the cast, alongside Sydney Mikala and Imani Hakim, who play Douglas at various ages. The real Douglas makes a cameo. Currently streaming: Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Hulu, Lifetime

Clint Eastwood directed Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon as Nelson Mandela and Springboks captain Francois Pienaar, respectively, in “Invictus,” a dramatization of the 1995 World Cup which arrived shortly after apartheid’s end. The film earned its stars Oscar nominations. Currently streaming: Amazon Prime, Apple TV

Bing Liu’s Oscar-nominated 2018 documentary “Minding the Gap” was a True/False Film Fest selection; it follows three skateboard-loving friends who come of age against very particular challenges growing up in the American Midwest. Currently streaming: Apple TV, Disney+, Hulu

This 2002 crowd-pleaser “Bend it Like Beckham” more than surpassed its box-office goals and sparked a subsequent musical with the tale of a British Indian young woman overcoming social expectations to pursue her passion for soccer. Currently streaming: Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Disney+

Annette Bening and Jodie Foster both earned Oscar nominations for “Nyad,” a 2023 portrait of real-life marathon swimmer Diana Nyad (Bening), who decides to battle the Straits of Florida in her early 60s. Currently streaming: Netflix

Perhaps the least Olympic offering here, “Point Break” is a 1991 Keanu Reeves-Patrick Swayze thrill ride that captures the risk, reward, and rush of a surfing life. Currently streaming: Amazon Prime, Apple, Hulu, Paramount+, Tubi

In 2017, the directors of “Little Miss Sunshine” served up “Battle of the Sexes,” a look at the real-life volley between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, as played by Emma Stone and Steve Carell. The film seeks to capture the zeitgeist of a changing ’70s and the intensity of competition. Currently streaming: Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Disney+

Source: Columbia Daily Tribune