5 To Watch: Ice skating movies that go for the gold

So many of the events in the Winter Olympics just seem to be about falling, whether it’s traveling down a mountain on two sticks, lying on top of someone in the doubles luge, etc. But figure skating stands apart from the snow-based sports as something much more graceful, gliding across the ice and attempting to defy gravity, not succumb to it—in the case of recent Olympic gold medal winner Nathan Chen, with a quadruple axel, no less.

So it’s unsurprising that the magic of ice-skating has also made its way to movies. As these Olympics draw to a close, you may be longing for more pairs routines and gold medal ambitions. Why not check out these cinematic forays into the figure skating world—from Sonja Henie’s Busby Berkeley-inspired extravaganzas to Tonya Harding’s rebellious attempt at Olympic greatness. At the very least, some of these more in-depth looks at skating challenges might give you a bit more appreciation for the perfection of those routines as these athletes vie for a spot on that heralded podium.

Sun Valley Serenade (1941)

So many of the events in the Winter Olympics just seem to be about falling, whether it’s traveling down a mountain on two sticks, lying on top of someone in the doubles luge, etc. But figure skating stands apart from the snow-based sports as something much more graceful, gliding across the ice and attempting to defy gravity, not succumb to it—in the case of recent Olympic gold medal winner Nathan Chen, with a quadruple axel, no less.So it’s unsurprising that the magic of ice-skating has also made its way to movies. As these Olympics draw to a close, you may be longing for more pairs routines and gold medal ambitions. Why not check out these cinematic forays into the figure skating world—from Sonja Henie’s Busby Berkeley-inspired extravaganzas to Tonya Harding’s rebellious attempt at Olympic greatness. At the very least, some of these more in-depth looks at skating challenges might give you a bit more appreciation for the perfection of those routines as these athletes vie for a spot on that heralded podium.