Contesting the international order through the Olympics: from Sochi 2014 to Paris 2024

Abstract

This chapter investigates the evolving nexus between Olympism and the liberal international order through a comparative analysis of the Sochi 2014 and Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, situating their legacies within the context of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics and the deepening fragmentation of the liberal international order (LIO). Building on the idea that contestation of the LIO can disrupt established institutional structures of international sport (Goretti, 2025), and that contestation within international sport may, in turn, unsettle the normative foundations of that order, this chapter examines how the two mega-events hosted respectively by Russia and China – widely seen as key challengers to the LIO – have functioned as platforms for the projection, negotiation, and contestation of competing visions of world order. By tracing both convergences and divergences in the Russian and Chinese approaches to Olympism, the chapter seeks to contribute to the growing body of International Relations literature on contestation by examining Olympic diplomacy both as a mirror of the often-overlooked multiplicity of contesting forces shaping global politics, as well as a catalyst in their unfolding.