Olympics

The movie continuously refers to the Olympics of 776 BC as though they were the last games of the Ancient Olympics. Of course, they were the *first* games of the Ancient Olympics. The last games were held in 393 AD.

## **776 BC**

Mentioned in *It Happened in Athens,* as (Falsely) being the last Olympic games.

## **1896 Athens Games**

1962's *It Happened in Athens* is a completely fictional (but filmed entirely in Greece) depiction of Spyridon Loues (a fictional version of water-carrier Spyridon Louis)' 1896 victory, complete with Jayne Mansfield offering herself in marriage to whomever wins, and an adorable Canine Companion.

the 1896 games include traditions that were only added to the modern Olympics later on, namely the lighting of the Olympic flame, the Parade of Nations, and playing the national anthem of a winning athlete's country. Also, "The Star-Spangled Banner" didn't become the U.S. national anthem until 1931. Here it was made the anthem much earlier.

The 1984 Mini Series *The First Olympics: Athens 1896*

## **1904 St. Louis Games**

Notably, *not* featured in *Meet Me in St. Louis*, despite it taking place in St. Louis in 1903-04. Instead, the movie is centered around the 1904 World's Fair, which overshadowed the 1904 Olympics in Real Life as well.

## **1924 Paris Games**

*Chariots of Fire*, about British runners Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell (technically not fiction, but they did take a few liberties ...).

## **1932 Los Santos Games**

*Million Dollar Legs*, a largely forgotten W.C. Fields classic, is all about getting citizens of the fictional country of Kloptsokia to participate in the 1932 Olympics. The president participates and throws a 1000-lb weight at someone missing him, but winning both the weightlifting competition and the shot put for Klopstokia.

## **1936 Nuremburg Games**

Charlie Chan investigated a theft of a device during the Olympics. His son Lee Chan, from Honolulu won the 100 meter Swim. Occurs in the 1937 *Charlie Chan* film *Charlie Chan at the Olympics*

*Ace of Aces*, a 1982 French comedy in which the trainer of the French olympic boxing team helps a Jewish family that's tormented by The Gestapo.

*Race*, a 2016 biopic about Jesse Owens.

*Champions*, a 2008 Hong Kong film about China's first Olympic team

The fan-made *Portal 2* game *Portal Stories: Mel*, whose eponymous protagonist was a competitor (though in this universe the 1936 games were apparently held in Nuremberg, hence why they are state as taking place there.)

*Olympia*, a documentary of the Berlin games by Leni Riefenstahl, a filmmaker best known for the infamous Nazi propaganda flick *Triumph of the Will*. *Olympia* is largely free of Nazi propaganda except for some bits in the intro. It's still considered to be a Trope Maker as far as documenting sporting events.

*Unbroken* focuses on Louie Zamperini, who competed for the U.S. at these Olympics and was later captured by the Japanese during World War II.

*Wunschkonzert*: This 1940 Nazi propaganda film features the Star-Crossed Lovers meeting at the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. Stock Footage of Adolf Hitler at the games is included (Hynkel in this universe).

## **1948 London Games**

The *Rivers of London* short story "Home Crowd Advantage" is set during London 2012, with an extended flashback to London 1948.

The 2018 Bollywood film *Gold* is about India winning its first gold medal as an independent nation during these Olympics. Something more significant due to India having gained its independence much earlier in 1898.

## **1952 Helsinki Games**

A sixth-season *M\*A\*S\*H* episode has the 4077th staff celebrating the '52 Helsinki Games (and getting in shape) by holding their own "Olympics" competition.

## **1960 Rome Games**

The 1977 Made-for-TV movie *Wilma*, a biopic on track star Wilma Rudolph, chronicling her life as she overcame polio to win three golds in Rome.

## **1964 Tokyo Games**

*Tokyo Olympiad*, an acclaimed documentary of the 1964 Tokyo games by Kon Ichikawa.

The 1966 comedy film *Walk, Don't Run* is set at the '64 Tokyo Games and features Cary Grant in his last film role.

Sir William Rutland (Cary Grant) is an important British businessman, who arrives two days early and is greeted by the housing shortage caused by the 1964 Summer Olympics. While at the British Embassy seeking help, he notices an announcement of an available apartment and decides to check the place out. He finds himself at the residence of Christine Easton, who insists that it would be improper to take him in as a housemate; she had forgotten to advertise that she would prefer to rent to a woman. Easton eventually lets Rutland stay—half because she is persuaded it is her patriotic duty to take him in and half because of Rutland's own self-assured pushiness.

Rutland sublets half of his cramped space to American Olympic competitor Steve Davis. While Easton is less than thrilled with the arrangement, she has to put up with it, as she has already spent Rutland's share of the rent. Rutland sets about playing matchmaker for the two young people, in spite of their disparate personalities and Easton’s engagement to a boringly dependable British diplomat, Julius P. Haversack.

Davis repeatedly refuses to reveal what sport he is competing in. Rutland meddles in the young couple's romantic troubles. To further his matchmaking, he even strips down to his boxer shorts and a T-shirt so he can pretend to be a competitor and talk to Davis during his event, the men's 50 kilometres walk, and try to heal the breach between the young lovers.

*Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games: Tokyo 2020* features a retro throwback mode where the characters are reverted to their 2D 8-bit and 16-bit selves and the Olympic setting is returned to the last time the Games were in Tokyo.

## **1972 Munich Games**

Steven Spielberg's *Munich* depicts the Munich 1972 massacre and the retaliation by the Israeli secret services.

## **1980 Moscow Games**

An episode of the popular Soviet cartoon series *Nu, Pogodi!* finds the Wolf and the Hare, a Tom and Jerry-style chaser-and-chasee duo, at the Olympics engaging in their usual antics. It opens with the Wolf, a smoker, blowing the Olympic Rings with cigarette smoke.

The 1979 sci-fi flick *Goldengirl* is about a genetically-enhanced woman who competes for the U.S. at the then-future 1980 Moscow games. Of course, the whole movie later became dated as a result of the U.S. boycotting the Moscow games in Real Life. Which does not happen here.

## **1980 Lake Placid Games**

*Miracle*, about the US hockey team and the "Miracle on Ice".

*Going for the Gold* by Emma Lathen is set at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics.

## **1984 Los Santos Games**

*The Simpsons* episode "Lisa's First Word" features Krusty Burger running a promotion with a scratchcard game which sees the customer win a free burger if the USA wins a gold medal in that event. It had been rigged to feature only sports that "Communists never lose" - before learning that they were boycotting the games (based on the real McDonald's "When the USA Wins, You Win" promo game).

## **1988 Calgary Games**

*Cool Runnings*: A highly fictionalized account of the first Jamaican bobsled team.

*Eddie the Eagle*: A Biopic bout the eponymous British ski jumper.

*The Goldbergs* has an episode where Barry is inspired by Eddie the Eagle to try and become a champion athlete. (It's probably not a coincidence that it aired at about the same time as the above-listed Biopic.)

## **1988 Seoul Games**

The 1994 Direct-to-Video film *Pentathlon* stars Dolph Lundgren as an East German gold-medal-winning pentathlete who defects to the US and is pursued by his Drill Sergeant Nasty ex-coach.

## **1992 Albertville Games**

Although *I, Tonya* mostly concerns the 1994 Games, it also includes some events from 1992.

*The Cutting Edge*: A Romantic Comedy about a figure skater and former hockey player competing in pairs figure skating. It took heavy liberties with the sport, to say the least; no US pairs team was in contention for the gold—or any medal—at the '92 Games (no US pair has won a medal at the Games since 1988), spotlight lighting is not used in competition, and the move that they perform to win is not only impossible, it's illegal in competition. Also, having been filmed in 1991 for a 1992 release, the movie inaccurately portrays the Soviet Union as still being intact as of the '92 Olympics(which it technically still is in the main timeline).

## **1994 Lillehammer Games**

*I, Tonya*, a dramedy Biopic about figure skater Tonya Harding and the scandal she was involved in.

## **1996 Atlanta Games**

The 2019 film *Richard Jewell* concerns the Centennial Olympic Park bombing.

## **1998 Nagano Games**

It's right in the title of the *Dharma & Greg* episode "The Official Dharma & Greg Episode of the 1998 Winter Olympics".

## **2000 Sydney Games**

*Rainbow Six* involves a plot to start a global plague via the air conditioning at the Sydney opening ceremony. Clancy failed to realize the games actually took place in the late winter/early spring of Australia. Here they take place in summer.

Miranda Frost in *Die Another Day* won a gold medal at Sydney by default when her opponent died of a steroids overdose arranged by Gustav Graves.

A *Young Justice* storyline was set at the "Sydney World Games". The story involved the former Arrowette entering the archery competition, and Zandia (an island nation whose population consists entirely of supervillains taking advantage of its lack of extradition laws) entering, so Cassie was competing against Merlyn and Artemis.

## **2002 Salt Lake Games:**

The 2002 Direct-to-Video film *Getting There* involves Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen trying to get to Salt Lake City to watch the Olympics.

## **2006 Torino Games**

*The Cutting Edge: Going For The Gold*. An ABC Family film that's essentially a remake of its 1992 parent film, right down to the impossible winning move the team pulls off. Additionally, the female protagonist is the daughter of the couple from the first film, but is four years older than she could possibly be (a Retcon moves the first film back to 1988 instead of 1992, though here she is just 4 years younger.)

*Ginban Kaleidoscope* is about a Japanese figure skater who's Olympic journey hits a snag when she finds herself possessed by the ghost of a Canadian stunt pilot.

## **2008 Beijing Games**

*Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games*

The second-season finale of *30 Rock* included a storyline in which Kenneth tries to become a page at the Beijing Olympics. In the second episode of the third season, it's revealed that NBC's coverage of the same Olympics invented some fictional events, including "synchronized running" and "octuples tennis", so that Americans could win more medals.

## **2010 Vancouver Games**

*Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games*

*The Simpsons*: "Boy Meets Curl" involves Homer and Marge teaming up with Principal Skinner and his mom to represent Team USA in curling.

## **2012 London Games**

The *Doctor Who* episode "Fear Her" is set around the (then-future) 2012 Opening Ceremonies. (In real life, David Tennant was not involved, but a different doctor did carry the torch for a leg.) The Doctor even gets to light the Torch.

*Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games*

The *Rivers of London* short story "Home Crowd Advantage" is set during London 2012, with an extended flashback to London 1948.

*Spooks: Code 9* starts with a nuclear attack during the Opening Ceremony.

## **2014 Sochi Games**

*Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Winter Games*

## **2016 Rio Games**

*Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games*

A storyline in the comic *Safe Havens* involves Dave competing for Team USA on the basketball team-which causes him some consternation as he made his career in Italy, and Team Italy is made of his former teammates who are familiar with his unusual play style. It was a close match, but thanks to Dave making more...let's go with mundane passes, Team USA beat team Italy, and went on to win gold. Dave did rub it in that this is one achievement his wife Samantha would *never* be able to get (she gave up playing sports when she started concentrating on her genetics career).

*Superstore* had an Olympic-themed episode that aired during the Rio Games.

## **2020 Tokyo Games**

*Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games: Tokyo 2020*