Netflix

1) Icarus (2017)

Run Time: 121 min | IMDb: 7.9/10

This Oscar-winning documentary dives into the world of doping in competitive cycling. Netflix bought the distribution rights to Icarus after a strong showing from director and co-writer Bryan Fogel’s film at Sundance. The documentary plays out as a thriller, with Fogel chasing the truth about cycling cheats and stumbling onto a major International doping scandal. Watch as a chance meeting with a Russian scientist turns a story that started as a simple experiment into a geopolitical thriller and one of the biggest scandals in cycling history.

2) Last Chance U (2016-19)

Run Time: 32 episodes, 55 min | IMDb: 8.5/10

This docu series looks at the world of college football with a bit of a twist. The first two seasons chronicled East Mississippi Community College and coach Buddy Stephens as his team, many of which lost their spot at major college football programs for rules violations or arrests — try to win a collegiate title and rehabilitate their football careers. One unique aspect of the show was the role academic advisor Brittany Wagner had in shepherding the players through their semesters, trying to balance play on the field with performance in the classroom and personal growth off the field. The show’s third season introduced viewers to Independence Community College in Indiana, a departure from the first two seasons yet following a similar story arc that made the show a streaming hit.

3) Cheer (2019)

Run Time: 6 episodes, 60 min | IMDb: 8.2/10

Cheer is an inside look at a small college’s top-ranked cheerleading team in Corsicana, Texas. What sounds like a charming exploration of a niche sport quickly becomes a harrowing look at a high-stakes and dangerous sports subculture. From Greg Whiteley, the executive producer of football documentary series Last Chance U, Cheer is visually stunning and emotionally tough. It’s an inside look at physical realities of competitive cheerleading in small-town college life and the students it attracts, often as a way out of some tough situations. That includes the dangers that come with competing and all the work put into just a few minutes that determine a national championship.

4) The Dawn Wall (2018)

Run Time: 100 min | IMDb: 8.2/10

The Dawn Wall isn’t Solo, which just won an Oscar for best documentary earlier in 2019. But there are a lot of stories to tell about El Capitan. One of climbing’s most famous landmarks was conquered by Alex Honnold without any ropes, but Tommy Caldwell’s story of triumph is every bit as compelling. The climbing legend’s quest to chart a new path up the peak in Yosemite National Park is as fascinating as it is harrowing. The film won the Audience Award at SXSW’s film festival, and it tells an amazing story that covers Caldwell’s extraordinary biography as well as the most intense climb of his life. The documentary is a great look at the world of climbing, and is visually stunning. It also does a great job of illustrating just how difficult his climb up The Dawn Wall was, and the way it was experienced by the rest of the world.

5) Formula 1: Drive To Survive (201)

Run Time: 20 episodes, 35 min | IMDb: 8.6/10

The racing docuseries is beloved by auto enthusiasts and Netflix bingers alike, as it takes an inside look at the cut-throat world of open-wheel racing. The first season followed the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship and featured footage of the various drivers that both dominate and struggle with the year. The pressure-packed episodes follow each driver as things change, both in the racing world and in their own lives. It’s an unprecedented look inside the sport and at 10 episodes a season it’s a relatively quick watch that’s especially illuminating if you’re not familiar with the globe-trotting auto racing series.

6) Lucha: Playing the Impossible (2016)

Run Time: 97 min | IMDb: 7.1/10

Considered one of the all time best hockey players, Luciana Aymar (fondly called as Lucha) put the Argentinian female hockey team, known as the Lionesses, on the world map; her exploits on the field making compatriots and peers in other countries sit up and take notice. Over the course of a nearly two decade career, Lucha, who commentators in the film constantly address as ‘The Magician’, ended up a serial winner, and is still only one of two Argentinian athletes to have won four Olympic medals in their career.

7) Sunderland ‘Till I Die (2018)

Run Time: 8 episodes, 39 min | IMDb: 8.4/10

Sunderland’s fall from the English Premier League to the Championship was a bleak moment in the club’s recent history, and this docuseries gives viewers an inside look at the dedication of Black Cats fans despite a truly heartbreaking season and the further tribulations that followed. This dive into English football fandom is a unique look at something American sports fans have little experience with relegation, and the impact it can have on small clubs across Europe.

8) The Carter Effect (2017)

Run Time: 95 min | IMDb: 7.1/10

Produced by LeBron James’ Uninterrupted, The Carter Effect made its debut at the Toronto

International Film Festival in 2017. It was fitting, as the movie is a loving homage to Carter and basketball in Canada’s largest city. Carter changed the game when he started his career with the Raptors in 1998, and he put Toronto on the basketball map in a way it had never been before. Interviews with Drake and Carter himself anchor a fascinating look at basketball in a hockey-first land. It’s a weighted look at how Carter’s swagger and style influenced a city and an entire generation of Canadian basketball talent, smartly executed by director Sean Menard.

9) The Short Game (2013)

Run Time: 99 min | IMDb: 7.4/10

This 2013 documentary is a delightful look at a youth golf championship. Chronicling the 2012 championship at Pinehurst, it follows a handful of charming golf proteges from around the world as they vie for the title of best 7- and 8-year-old players in the world. Golf greats like Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, and Annika Sörenstam provide commentary on the difficulty and drama of the game while we watch young golfers deal with the stress of the tournament, parents, and some nitpicky rules. It has its fair share of Sports Parent moments, but the kids are genuinely interesting and full of character.

10) The Game Changers (2018)

Run Time: 108 min | IMDb: 7.9/10

Meeting visionary scientists and top athletes, a UFC fighter embarks on a quest to find the optimal diet for human performance and health.

11) The English Game (2020)

Run Time: 6 episodes, 50 min | IMDb: 7.7/10

The story of the invention of football and how it quickly rose to become the world's most popular game by crossing class divides.

12) Losers (2019)

Run Time: 8 episodes, 30 min | IMDb: 7.7/10

In a "winning is everything" society, how do we handle failure? This series profiles athletes who have turned the agony of defeat into human triumph.Netflix, realising people enjoy seeing this about as much as they do watching triumphant sporting stories, have decided to chronicle some of these stories, telling the tales of some of the most spectacular collapses in the history of professional sport.

13) Stop at Nothing: The Lance Armstrong Story (2014)

Run Time: 100 min | IMDb: 7.5/10

An intimate but explosive portrait of the man behind the greatest fraud in sporting history. Lance Armstrong enriched himself by cheating his fans, his sport, and the truth. But the former friends whose lives and careers he destroyed would prove to be his nemesis.