Why did sports, specifically the Olympics, mean so much to the US and the USSR politically? In other words, what did they have to gain?

t the start of the Soviet Union, all things that were seen as tools of capitalism were renounced; this included competitive sports.  Therefore, the Soviet Union refused to participate in the international Olympic Games.  However, by the 1930s the Soviet Union began to take a different stance concerning competitive sport.Explanation:

china has confucianism thats everywhere in asia but it isn't really a religion.