Abstract

This article contributes to the literature on crisis management by focusing on sport mega-events as a factor which may distract a leader from responding effectively to the outbreak of an international crisis. The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi were unusual because of the outbreak of a major foreign policy crisis in a neighbouring country and the urgent need of the rulers of authoritarian Russia to address it: the simmering Euromaidan protests in Kyiv which came to a head as the Games were ending. Using time-series analysis, this article outlines the balance the Russian President Vladimir Putin struck between athletics and politics and suggests that he set aside insufficient time to the Euromaidan crisis. While many factors shaped developments in Kyiv which resulted in the overthrow of a pro-Russian government and its replacement by a Western-oriented one, Putin’s hubris, producing a distracted leader consumed with athletes and athletic competition played a major role.