Geopolitics, Genocide and the Olympic Games: Sochi 2014

Resumen

This Commentary explores the geopolitics of the modern Olympic Games. It suggests that far from being non-political, as the Games are often portrayed by the International Olympic Committee, the Olympics are characterised throughout their modern history by various expressions of statecraft and stagecraft. Despite this problematic history, this Commentary questions why the 2014 Winter Olympic Games were awarded to Sochi, Russia and contextualises the argument in the Circassian ‘genocide’ of 1864.