O Sport, You Are Peace!

O Sport, You Are Peace! (1981) is the official Olympic documentary you can watch online on iFILM — commissioned by the International Olympic Committee to chronicle the 1980 Moscow Games. Director Yuri Ozerov built the film from inside the arena, not from a broadcast booth: the tension comes from track-level footage of sprinters, swimmers, wrestlers and basketball players. Sebastian Coe, Pietro Mennea and Soviet hurdler Viktor Saneyev all appear in competition.

The farewell to the bear mascot Misha closes the film on a note that is quiet and oddly tender for a state-sponsored sports chronicle. Alexandra Pakhmutova's score became its own chapter in the cultural memory of those Games. Ozerov took home the USSR State Prize in 1982 for the work. Stream O Sport, You Are Peace! online on iFILM — 148 minutes of Olympic footage that still carries the feeling of that summer.