Bud Greenspan, the filmmaker whose documentaries often soared as triumphantly as the Olympic athletes he chronicled for more than six decades, died at his home in New York City. He was 84.

He died Saturday from complications of Parkinson’s disease, companion Nancy Beffa said.

“Bud was a storyteller first and foremost. He never lost his sense of wonder and he never wavered in the stories he wanted to tell, nor how he told them,” she said.

Even as controversies over politics, performance-enhancing drugs and commercialism increasingly vied for attention on the grandest sporting stage, Greenspan remained uncompromising about his focus on the most inspirational stories.

“I spend my time on about the 99 percent of what’s good about the Olympics, and most people spend 100 percent of their time on the 1 percent that’s negative. I’ve been criticized for seeing things through rose-colored glasses, but the percentages are with me,” he said nearly a decade ago.

He received lifetime achievement awards from the Directors Guild of America and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, as well as a Peabody and the Olympic Order.

His best-known work was “The Olympiad,” the culmination of 10 years of research, more than 3 million feet of rare, archival film, hundreds of interviews and visits to more than 30 nations.