Perhaps nothing drove home the truly global nature of the COVID-19 pandemic like the delay of the 2020 Summer Olympics.

In the history of the games, only five Olympics have ever been canceled, and none in peacetime. Even a year later, stands will be empty due to the ongoing chance of infection. However, we still have the chance to see athletes push the limits of human ability.

The Olympics are also fodder for some of the greatest sports movies ever. Though the best ones are generally made about the Winter Games (“I, Tonya” and “Cool Runnings,” among others), there are some truly great flicks — along with terrible but noteworthy ones — that evoke the glory of the summer competition.

Here are some of these films, and how they capture the athletic spirit:

‘Ludwig/Walkenhorst — Der Weg zu Gold’ (‘The Path to Gold’) (2016)

One of the joys of contributing to a column like this is that you get to put your niche interests front and center, and in my case that involves Olympic beach volleyball. As one of the few partner sports in the games, the dynamic between teammates is amazing to watch and always displays their incredible sense of cooperation. In 2016, the German team consisting of Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst won glory and gold after a career full of terrible mishaps, which included Ludwig recovering from a stroke. Director Guido Weihermüller followed the pair as they prepared to dominate the Rio Games, and the resulting documentary gives an intimate look at how the two women overcame incredible odds.

Watch it: Available to rent on Vimeo.

‘Race’ (2016)

Jesse Owens was one of the most famous athletes in the world, breaking track and field world records like other people break lunch dates. His performance at the 1936 Olympics, held in Hitler’s Germany, was seen as an incredible victory against the myth of Aryan supremacy. Director Stephen Hopkins’ biopic of the runner, starring Stephan James, is a rather typical depiction of an extraordinary man. The film beautifully captures Owens’ struggles to provide for his family, as he trained for competitions that quite literally held the soul of equality at stake. Hopkins divides his film between presenting a grand view of the games under the regime of a racist fascist dictator and exploring the heart of a champion struggling to do the right thing under intense pressure.

It’s an inspiring story, as most Olympic films are, but it is also one of the best ways to digest an essential sports moment in history.

Watch it: Rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video.

‘Animalympics’ (1980)

Technically, this entry is a cheat, since the movie is split between winter and summer games, but it’s such an underrated animated treasure that it deserves to be included. This is a version of the Olympics starring anthropomorphic animals, featuring an all-star cast of comedians like Gilda Radner, Billy Crystal and Harry Shearer. Some of the jokes were already dated by the time I watched the movie as a child, but you don’t have to know who Mark Spitz or Yoko Ono is to find the action funny.

It’s a bizarre film that includes a wraparound love story between marathoners, a spirit quest to Shangri-La in the middle of a ski jump and a sequence at a disco presenting a remarkably accurate depiction of what happens at an Olympic Village during the games. It also has an absolute banger of a soundtrack, featuring original songs by Graham Gouldman (of English rock band 10cc) that I can still sing word for word three decades later.

Watch it: Available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

‘Tokyo Olympiad’ (1966)

Also available as part of the Criterion Collection, this magnificent documentary by Kon Ichikawa might be the definitive track and field film. Set during the 1964 games in Tokyo, it primarily focuses on the more human side of the Olympics in a very abstract way. Although there are some individual competitors triumphing, such as Ethiopian runner Abebe Bikila, that is not really what Ichikawa was filming. “Tokyo Olympiad” is more like a modern surf film in that it follows the poetry of motion, even when the person who is being filmed isn’t the victor. The movie is about small moments on the biggest stage, and the looks of concentration on the athletes’ faces as they work marvels with their bodies. This makes the movie a little short on drama but incredibly long on beauty.

Ichikawa may be the only person who has truly captured what the supposed meaning of the Olympics is: that the spirit of human athletics is a binding force no matter who loses. It’s a lesson that needs repeating sometimes.

Watch it: Streaming on HBO Max.

‘Peaceful Warrior’ (2006)

This is a terrible film that deserves to be included because it may be the most bizarre sports movie ever made. Dan (Scott Mechlowicz) is a gifted gymnast at Cal who has everything going for him, until a motorcycle accident shatters his leg. At first despondent, Dan finds new strength under the tutelage of a mysterious Zen mechanic (Nick Nolte, who vacillates between guru and possible antagonistic space alien) who trains him to find peace in his mind during physical exertion through bizarre tests. Eventually, Dan takes the philosophic advice to heart and triumphs at the Olympic tryouts.

Based on the novel by former Olympian Dan Millman, the film is more about spirituality than competition. The message is that accomplishment happens in the now, not in the future. Dan’s acceptance of a more connected state of mind is what puts him back on the road to his dreams.

Living as we all have through collective trauma this past year, “Peaceful Warrior” is actually a pretty good movie to remind ourselves that productivity is also a mental journey. We’re all preparing for some sort of competition again after being hurt, and this film — ham-fisted as it is — offers some hope in that regard.

Watch it: Available for rent on YouTube.