Life

Get Olympics-Ready With These 15 Totally Awesome Movies

It's the Olympics season! For two weeks, the whole world will turn its attention to the goings on in PyeongChang, South Korea for the quadrennial winter sports event (the Olympics are probably the best and only time the word quadrennial even gets used). Some people get obsessed with the games, others watch casually, and some even ignore them altogether. If you're of the first group and looking for a way to get psyched for the games, these are the best movies to get you in the Olympics spirit.

Prepping for the Olympics is a great time to catch up on winter sports movies. If you don't feel like braving the cold or finding a sitter, there is no shortage of ice skating movies to stream in your own home. Most of them have a little bonus romance thrown in between the double axels, Besti squats, camel spins, and other fancy figure skating moves. There is also tons of great hockey movies, a bobsledding classic, and even a movie about curling.

Personally, I welcome these movies as a substitute to watching the actual Olympic games. As a mom, I have a hard time watching these athletes, who have trained the majority of their lives, stumble. Sure, many of their performances end in triumph, but when I see a skater fall or a skier crash into a gate and all their hopes for Olympic glory disappear, it crushes me. And when the camera pans to their parents — I totally lose it.

Whether you're getting psyched or avoiding the hype, there are many ways you can celebrate the Olympic season through film.

1

Cutting Edge

My cousins have seen this one more times than they can count. It's a skating classic featuring a romance (and, of course, a clash) between a figure skater and a hockey player as they try to go for Olympic gold. It's such a fan favorite that it was followed by three more iterations.

2

Cool Runnings

Cool Runnings brought the obscure sport of bobsledding to the forefront of Olympic movie-dom. Try not to root for this Jamaican bobsled team — you'll definitely fail.

3

Ice Castles

"Please don't let this feeling end, it's everything I am, everything I want to be." Those are the lyrics to the theme song from this 1978 movie where an aspiring figure skater is blinded in a skating accident and has to work her way back to be able to compete. And of course, fall in love along the way.

4

The Other Side Of The Mountain

Based on the true story of skier Jill Kinmont, the athlete who almost died when she falls while training for the 1956 Olympics. Paralyzed from the waist down, she needs to rebuild her life. And of course, fall in love.

5

Aspen Extreme

If you ever dreamed of quitting your day job and heading to Colorado, this is the movie for you. When T.J. and Dexter move to Aspen to become ski instructors, they wind up with very different experiences.

6

Ice Girls

This is a more recent entry into the figure skater movie category, featuring another injured athlete who needs to rehab her way back to health and happiness.

7

Blades Of Glory

Will Ferrell and Jon Heder are hysterical in this movie, playing male figure skaters who are banned from competition, but figure out a way around the rules — by competing as a pair.

8

Sticks And Stones

A little junior hockey America versus Canada rivalry is at the center of this movie from 2008. You don't have to be a hockey fan to root for a favorite team.

9

D2: The Mighty Ducks

More hockey! Gordan Bombey (Emilio Estevez), the hero of The Mighty Ducks, is sidelined with an injury and winds up coaching Team USA Hockey for the Junior Goodwill Games in California.

10

Copper Mountain

This is a really early Jim Carrey movie from 1983, and like the poster advertises, hilarity ensues.

11

Ski Patrol

Ski Patrol is your mindless, silly, fun movie. A perfect counterbalance to the seriousness of the Olympics.

12

Eddie The Eagle

Based on the real-life story of Michael "Eddie" Edwards, an Englishman who makes an improbable run at the Olympic ski jumping competition at the 1988 Calgary Winter Games. This movie is entertaining and totally inspiring.

13

Miracle

The fabulously inspiring story of Team USA's improbable 1980 Olympic hockey victory. Get ready to cheer!

14

Men With Brooms

This movie is not about a bunch of guys who start a maid service. It's a romantic comedy about the Olympic sport of curling (which has nothing to do with hair or ribbons).

15

Downhill Racer

Robert Redford. In 1969. Skiing down the slopes. Sigh.

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