In recent years, countries with serious human rights issues or financial troubles have been selected by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to host the Olympics. Features of sportswashing have been present in these Games, with the narrative of possible improvement for their societies through the idea of Olympism and building new infrastructure. Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, Sochi 2014, Rio 2016, and Beijing 2022 were personal successes for the respective countries’ leaders. However, tremendous amounts of money were spent that could have been used to develop disadvantaged social groups in Athens and Rio, and human rights adherence worsened in Russia and China. The IOC, under the leadership of President Thomas Bach, tried to play the buck-passing role of “political neutrality,” leading to the tolerance of human-rights violence in exchange for the Games being successfully organized by the authoritarian states at a time when democratic ones have been gradually losing interest due to the potential harmful costs to public budgets.