I’ve written a couple of times before about BMW’s involvement in this summer’s Olympic Games. The company is providing a fleet of fuel-efficient cars to ferry athletes around, which will be a high-profile showcase for its latest and greenest cars, including the recently launched 320d Efficient Dynamics Edition.

The company is also hoping to cement a few mental associations between the peaks of athletic prowess that form the focus of the games, and the power and agility of its saloons, hatches and coupes.

To hammer home the analogy, in case people aren’t paying attention, BMW has launched a TV, magazine and billboard advertising campaign explicitly comparing athletes and cars. It has also invested in some dedicated online videos, drawing comparisons between the obsessive preparations undergone by Olympians and the incredibly detailed engineering that underpins its cars.

And despite the overt marketing messages, the short films are surprisingly good little documentaries – beautifully filmed and unexpectedly candid. There are currently four on YouTube and you can watch them by zipping over to BMW’s channel.

Beneath the Surface – a six-minute video focusing on swimmer Rebecca Adlington – is particularly mesmerising. And no, not because it features a shapely lady in a tight bathing suit. Her giggling recollection of obliterating a world record in Beijing is an absolute joy to watch. Almost four years on, it’s clear she can still barely believe it didn’t all happen in a dream.

Rebecca’s video is well worth a view – even if you don’t give two hoots about the parallels between swimming gracefully through the water and propelling a car cleanly through the air. You can watch it below: