A very Brundage, a past president of the International Olympic Committee once remarked, “Sport, like the fine arts, transcends politics”. However, the evidence from previous Olympics, including the banning of South Africa in 1964 because of apartheid policies, show otherwise. In light of this, I examined how the Olympic Games affect national politics and how the structure of national politics affects the Olympic Games. To answer these questions, a cross-cultural comparison of the United States and China was conducted during the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. Using a content analysis of newspapers and an organizational analysis of Olympic Committees, this paper fuses the sociological literature of sport, nationalism, and identity with original empirical research to compare the U.S. and China. The research reveals the effect that globalization and isomorphic processes have on both politics and sport. Relying on a Durkheimian perspective, I argue that globalization and isomorphism have not only led to institutions becoming similar due to the ease of information traveling across borders, but they have also led to states using international sporting competitions such as the Olympics to demonstrate the continuing relevance of the nation-state.