The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia: nine Russian athletes are found guilty of doping and stripped of their medals, shocking everybody with how they initially passed their required drug test.

These sobering events inspired filmmaker Bryan Fogel to make the documentary “Icarus,” exposing how Russian sports doctors schemed with athletes to obtain false negative results on drug tests.

What Fogel never could’ve predicted when he began his investigations was that this doping scandal wasn’t a small scale incident, but a systemic state-sponsored ploy by the Russian government to cheat the Olympics.

As the documentary progresses, the plot gets more sinister, and watchers begin to realize that this isn’t just about sports anymore; it’s a matter of life or death.

With a 2017 Oscar win for Best Documentary Feature, the expectations for excellence were high, and “Icarus” did not disappoint.

Especially for any sports fans, this documentary is a must watch. It uncovers the dark side of sports and how doping among professional athletes is more common than many think.

“Icarus” follows Fogel as he works with the former director of the Russian anti-doping lab, Grigory Rodchenkov, to try to obtain a false negative test result while on illegal substances.

After the 2014 Olympics, Rodchenkov was fired as director of the anti-doping lab and put under investigation for his involvement in the doping scandal.

Courageously coming clean about the state-sponsored doping despite one former Russian sports director suspiciously dying, the suspense over Rodchenkov’s fate leaves watchers hanging on the edge of their seat.

“Icarus” is a compilation of interviews, skype calls and live action footage that illuminates how elaborate the Russian doping scheme was and captures Rodchenkov’s fear of the Russian government.

Surprisingly, it also humanizes Rodchenkov, a man condemned for having no morals and being a criminal, by portraying him as a slave to the government’s unrealistic expectations for Olympic success.

“Icarus” challenges the inherent nature of competitive sports and the temptation to win at any cost while asking the question, “Would you watch sports knowing the athletes were doping?”