Swimming is one of those sports that practically everyone can do from an early age (although not really, as one documentary on our list will explain), yet it is also one that is a different kettle of fish when you’re looking to do it to a certain level.

There are many who adore it as a pastime, thanks largely to the peace that you can feel once you’re under the water, but that isn’t a peace that those that look to do it competitively ever really get to find.

The documentaries on the list here will give you some different perspectives about swimming as a sport, looking at it from a few different angles that will almost certainly give you something to think about.

Head Above Water

• Format: Documentary series
• First Released: 2021
• Length: 36–43 minutes per episode
• Episodes: 4 episodes
• Watch in the UK: Included with an Amazon Prime Video subscription.
• Accessibility: English SDH subtitles are available. Photosensitive content.

Made by Amazon Original, Head Above Water follows the lives of four Australian swimmers over four episodes, exploring what it is to be an Olympic swimmer through the eyes of people at different stages of the journey. Ian Thorpe is a retired Olympian who was considered to be a hero at the time, whilst Kyle Chalmers was a reigning champion when the series was made.

Bronte Campbell, meanwhile, is a two-time Olympian, but arguably the most fascinating case is that of Cody Simpson, who is better known as an Australian singer, but was desperate to join the Australian Swim Team for the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024.

The documentary series looks to explain the draw of the Olympics, which is one of the main ways in which swimmers can prove to the world that they’re the best of the best at what they do.

For Thorpe, the challenge is to navigate life outside of the pool and what that means, whilst Campbell is facing the reality of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games being her last, complete with the issues around legacy and how she can leave the sport better than she found it. For Simpson, the biggest challenge is arguably persuading his fans that pursuing his dream of swimming in the Olympics is a worthwhile pursuit when they just want more music.

Touch the Wall

• Format: Feature-length documentary
• First Released: 2014
• Length: 1 hour 41 minutes
• Watch in the UK: Included with an iWonder subscription. Physical Blu-ray editions are also listed online, although buyers should check their region compatibility.

American swimmers Missy Franklin and Kara Lynn Joyce were determined to make it to the 2012 Summer Olympics, with Touch the Wall following them on their journey to London. As you might imagine from the pair of them, they are both desperate to succeed and fiercely competitive, which is something that becomes clear when they begin training together.

Joyce was a four-time silver medalist heading into the making of the film, with the 25-year-old getting a new lease of life by training with talented teenager Franklin. The latter is a star on the rise, whilst the former is someone who knows her time in the pool is running out.

Whilst they train together, they form a strong bond, which we see develop as the documentary plays through. It is not a film that features a wealth of compelling drama, especially when you consider that lovers of the sport will already know precisely how each of the swimmers got on in the Olympic Games themselves.

Still, it is fascinating to get a glimpse behind-the-scenes of a world that many of us won’t even come close to being able to live. Thanks to commentary from well-known figures of the sport such as Michael Phelps, we get to learn exactly what it is about these two women that drives them to succeed in the swimming pool.

Lane 0: The Lane of Dreams

• Format: Feature-length documentary
• First Released: 2017
• Length: 1 hour 11 minutes
• Watch in the UK: Included with a DocuBay subscription.

For most people in the developed world, we understand how people can go about making it to the Olympic Games, even if we’re somewhat ignorant when it comes to the likes of how they make their money to do so. In Lane 0: The Lane of Dreams, we follow swimmers who want to make it to the Olympics but come from developing countries.

For them, the journey there is significantly harder, not least of all because of the lack of access to swimming pools that they have. Two sisters have to swim in the sea, for example, whilst one boy learns to swim by watching YouTube videos. This is swimming from an entirely different perspective.

As they attempt to learn their craft, the swimmers are given a remarkable opportunity to work with a coach and head to world-class facilities with a year left before the Olympic qualifiers. If any of them make it, they will become the first to do so from their countries, which adds to the pressure that they’re under to succeed.

Directed by Manuel Tera, this is a film that is all about following your dreams and doing whatever you can to overcome adversity. If you’ve ever wondered whether it is possible to make it to the Olympics without having even been in a pool in the years prior to this documentary starting filming, this will answer the question.

The Fast and the Furious

• Format: Television documentary
• First Released: 1983
• Length: Approximately 58 minutes
• Watch in the UK: No current official UK streaming, rental, purchase or physical release. A full-length third-party upload is available free on YouTube.

Mention The Fast & the Furious to most people and they will talk to you about films involving the Rock, Vin Diesel and many other stars besides racing fast cars in illegal street events. This is, you won’t be surprised to learn, not about that. Instead, it looks at the lives of two individuals who emerged from the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles with incredible accomplishments.

Peter Baumann won two gold medals for his medley and freestyle races, whilst Scott Davis broke the world record in breaststroke, doing the 200 metres. Sadly, Davis’ life was cut short not long after winning gold when he was hit by a car and died.

The film takes a look at the pair of them and their remarkable achievements in LA, following their training regimes and the way in which they navigate injuries as well as falling out with their coaches. Made by the Canadian Broadcasting Company, it follows the two Canadian natives as they demonstrate their wildly different personalities.

For Baumann, it’s all about being analytical and looking to see what the best way of achieving his goal would be. Davis, on the other hand, was a brash and fiery personality who tended to be more about trying to do everything as though he had a chip on his shoulder he was trying to shake free.

Unfiltered

• Format: Feature-length documentary
• First Released: 2005
• Length: 1 hour 9 minutes
• Watch in the UK: No current official UK subscription streaming, rental or digital purchase option. The film is available free on YouTube in an upload by Paul Kubera, who states that he worked on the documentary. Region 1 import DVDs are also available through marketplace sellers, but these may require a compatible player.

The 28 medals, 23 of which were gold, that Michael Phelps won during his career is the most of any athlete in the history of the Olympic Games. When he won eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, he broke the record for the most golds in a single Games that had previously been held by Mark Spitz.

In other words, he is someone who can be considered to be the best of the best. Early on in his career, though, he was pushed along thanks to his rivalry with Ian Crocker, who was the first man to ever manage to swim the 100-metre butterfly in under 51 seconds, whilst also winning five Olympic medals of his own.

That Phelps went on to be the most decorated Olympian ever wasn’t known at the time that the two of them were battling it out in the swimming pool, which is where the focus of this documentary lies. One of the biggest stories of the 2004 Summer Olympic Games was the run-up to the men’s butterfly, where Phelps and Crocker would go head-to-head in the 100-metre discipline.

In the end, Phelps emerged victorious by 0.04 seconds. The film shows us not only their competitiveness in the pool but also their friendship outside of it, as well as the struggles that the two of them went through in the wake of their Olympic success.

Black Stroke

• Format: Short documentary
• First Released: 2024
• Length: 12 minutes
• Watch in the UK: Available free on the official Still Watching Netflix YouTube channel.
• Content Note: The film discusses racial barriers to swimming and one participant’s experience of sickle cell disease.

This isn’t the longest documentary on our list, coming in at just 12 minutes, but it might be the most important. Figures from Sport England that were released in 2024 said that 87% of Black adults and 86% of Black children living in the United Kingdom don’t swim.

When you consider how young children are encouraged to learn to swim from an early age, that is a remarkable statistic that does more than most stats do to point at the huge disparity between different races in this country. Made thanks to the Netflix Documentary Talent Fund scheme that was created in 2020 in order to break down barriers around access, it is a fascinating short film.

Director Olivia Smart follows three Black people as they learn to swim, with each coming from a different walk of life. We see them working with their coaches and getting support from their community, following the journey as they discover whether they will sink or swim.

The film also finds the time to look at the racial history of swimming that has seen barriers put up in the way of Black people, hindering their learning. More than anything else, Smart was hoping that Black Stroke would encourage other Black people to take up swimming as a sport, dispelling the misinformation about swimming that is ‘ingrained’ in the Black community.