Exploring the Role of the Olympic Games in Political Narrative——A Case Study of 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

Abstract

It is increasingly commonplace for sporting events, and even the Olympics, to be politicised and used as a means of political narrative, and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics are no exception. Considering that the Beijing Winter Olympics is recently hosted, and there is a lack of adequate analysis and discussion of it, this paper focuses on exploring the role of the Olympic Games in political narratives, and through the dissection of several controversial issues, it specifically illustrates Beijing’s tactful utilisation of the Games. It is expected that the results of this case study will enrich the empirical basis of Olympic diplomacy and offer more insights into China’s subtle use of different modules of the Olympics to achieve the desired political narrative. After a comprehensive and inductive analysis, this paper defines Beijing’s use of the successful hosting of the Games itself, the opening ceremony, some “vignettes”, and media coverage for the underlying political narrative and reconstructs its main objectives.