Best movies like It Happened in Athens

Eight acclaimed filmmakers bring their unique and differing perspectives to the 1972 Summer Olympic Games held in Munich. The segments include Lelouch's take on Olympic losers and their struggle to remain dignified even in the face of bitter disappointment and defeat; Zetterling's dramatic exploration of the world of weightlifting; and Pfleghar's piece on young Russian gymnast Ludmilla Tourischev's majestic performance on the uneven bars.

The story of the Hakoah Vienna Jewish womens swim team of the 1930s, their forced separation, and their reunion decades later.

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.

It all begins with the discreet romance between the Creole maid Lea Mariotte and her young boss, George Brissac, an amoral bourgeois who plans to inherit his uncle's fortune and marry a young woman from a good family. After an incident where she kills a man, she is saved from the gallows by Fabian, a ship's captain, who has personal reasons for antagonizing the Brissacs. He takes care of her and falls in love with her, but doesn't tell her. She, in turn, takes the opportunity to return to her lover Brissac's arms, forcing him to marry her after seeing him murder his uncle.

Animalympics is all about the Animal Olympics Contest where all the animals around the world gather to take part in everything from skiing in North America to the very long marathon race in humid conditions.

Pete Bell, a college basketball coach is under a lot of pressure. His team isn't winning and he cannot attract new players. The stars of the future are secretly being paid by boosters. This practice is forbidden in the college game, but Pete is desperate and has pressures from all around.

When a Jamaican sprinter is disqualified from the Olympic Games, he enlists the help of a dishonored coach to start the first Jamaican bobsled team.

The Ducks are offered scholarships at Eden Hall Academy but struggle with their new coach's methods and come under pressure from the board to retain their scholarships before their big game against the Varsity team.

When college coach Herb Brooks is hired to helm the 1980 U.S. men's Olympic hockey team, he brings a unique and brash style to the ice. After assembling a team of hot-headed college all-stars, who are humiliated in an early match, Brooks unites his squad against a common foe: the heavily-favored Soviet team.

An Olympic Gold medalist is hired to coach the boys basketball team. But when Coach Randy Rawlings arrives, the school's sexist principal discovers he hired a woman. Blocked from firing her due to discrimination laws, he tries to make sure the team loses, so he can fire her for poor performance

Molly Bloom, a young skier and former Olympic hopeful becomes a successful entrepreneur (and a target of an FBI investigation) when she establishes a high-stakes, international poker game.

In 2004, Hope Ann Greggory became an American hero after winning the bronze medal for the women's gymnastics team. Today, she's still living in her small hometown, washed-up and embittered. Stuck in the past, Hope must reassess her life when a promising young gymnast threatens her local celebrity status.

Avid diminutive sportsman Derk Dorf is now an Olympian who must organize the first Olympic Games. He presents various disciplines, but his fellow citizen Leonard keeps beating him which only increases Derk's frustration.

An ambitious young skier, determined to break all existing records, is contemptuous of the teamwork advocated by the US coach when they go to Europe for the Olympics.

The feel-good story of Michael 'Eddie' Edwards, an unlikely but courageous British ski-jumper who never stopped believing in himself—even as an entire nation was counting him out. With the help of a rebellious and charismatic coach, Eddie takes on the establishment and wins the hearts of sports fans around the world by making an improbable and historic showing at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics.

A chance encounter with a stranger changes the life of a college gymnast.

Steve is a talented gymnast who has given up competition and is working at his father's bike shop. Julie is the new girl at his old gym, who has moved to town to train with their powerful coach. Inspired by Julie, Steve resumes training. While dealing with the conflicts in their personal lives and the stress of training, they prepare for the US Olympic Trials.

Young elite swimmer Claire is sent to Australia to coach a boys swimming team, where she must overcome an old rival and a secret fear to save the swimming camp from closing.

Quadriplegics, who play full-contact rugby in wheelchairs, overcome unimaginable obstacles to compete in the Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece.

When East German Eric Brogar wins a gold medal in the pentathlon, he escapes to freedom in the west with the help of a beautiful American athlete. But his demanding coach, Heinrich Mueller vows revenge and Eric's best friend and his father pay the ultimate price for his freedom when they are killed by the Secret Police. In Los Angeles, Eric starts to train for the gold again. But when Mueller comes to America, Eric must win the most deadly game of all… the fight for his life.

Thrown together just five weeks before the final of the 1948 London Olympics, Bert Bushnell (Doctor Who's Matt Smith) and Dickie Burnell (Sam Hoare) defied all the odds and made history in the double sculls. This is the story of how they did it - not only by pushing physical and emotional limits, but also by overcoming their vast professional and personal differences.

The son of a disgraced Olympic decathlete prepares to become a star in his own right. His quest is complicated by a beautiful girl and a bitter rival.

A young man, Jason, is on his way home and meets two beautiful women, Hope and Alexis. He falls for Hope, but has sex with Alexis. He doesn't know that Alexis' husband has hired a private detective to trail her, and the man reports back to Alexis' husband about her affair with Jason. The husband kills Alexis but the police suspect Jason. He and Hope have to clear his name and find enough evidence to prove the husband is the killer.

The film tells the story of Matt, a male hockey player who dies in a game and comes back to life as Sara Bryan, a female figure skater due to an accident made by an angel that caused the hockey player to die. Both share the dream of competing in the Winter Olympics. The male hockey player specified that if he returned to earth, he wanted to have a chance to win an Olympic Gold medal on ice leaving the detail that he wanted to be on the hockey team implied. With time running short Matt has to get skating lessons from Sara's one-time rival if he wishes to earn gold.

Young, beautiful, talented Alexis Winston comes from nowhere to become a figure skating superstar. But her rise to stardom isn’t easy. She has to push herself, reinvent herself, and most painfully of all, leave her hometown boyfriend behind. When a tragic fall leaves her blind, she needs someone to believe in her, to love her; someone to convince her she has the strength to skate and dream again.

Young sprinter Chris Cahill is having difficulty reaching her potential as an athlete, until she meets established track star Tory Skinner. As Tory and her coach help Chris with her training, the two women form friendship that evolves into a romantic relationship. Their intimacy, however, becomes complicated when Chris' improvement causes them to be competitors for the Olympic team.

A sultry assassin is the target of two separate operatives in this globe-trotting action flick shot on location in the Bahamas, Athens, Rome and Hong Kong.

Terrorists attempt to disrupt the Atlanta Olympics by kidnapping the U.S. women's swim team. If their demands are not met, the team will be executed. Only janitor Jack Bryant, a former Olympic gymnast champion of Tae Kwon Do felled by injuries and alcoholism knows of their real plans. And only he, with the guidance of former terrorist-fighter Leo, can stop them.

The 16-year-old Ukrainian figure skater (Monica Keena) overcomes personal tragedies to become the 1994 Olympic gold medalist.

A documentary covering the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

An Olympic hopeful marathon runner hopes his success will be the answer to his marriage woes and other personal problems.

The story of an Olympic high jumper, played by Brent Carver, who loses his leg and yet doggedly persists in his pursuit of athletic glory. Released a year before Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope, this made-for-Canadian-TV movie, which also stars Sex and the City's Kim Cattrall, has been described as a tear-jerker.

Renowned for his extreme generosity, the Athenian nobleman Timon has fallen prey to flatterers and false friends, on whom he showers lavish gifts and extravagant hospitality. His loyal steward, Flavius, tries to warn him of the financial consequences of such reckless expenditure, while the cynical philosopher Apemantus mocks his naivety, but Timon ignores them both. When his money runs out and his creditors demand payment, Timon sends confidently to his "friends" for help. When all refuse him, he throws one last party - one that heralds a dramatic change in his attitude to the world.

The largest world's fair in history (which took place in St. Louis in 1904) included the first Olympic Games on American soil, where competitors were openly administered drugs and marathon runners were chased off course by dogs. Other firsts include the first ferris wheel; also, Apache chief Geronimo sold visitors autographs and his hat -- which he then replaced with another from a box hidden under the table. Features never-before-seen images.

The story of the record-making swimmer's successful 1926 crossing of the English Channel, offering insight into the significance of her accomplishment, the personal price she paid for her achievement, and her abrupt subsequent departure from the public eye.