At the end of the 1980s, the historiography of the Olympics was marked by a shift from a practical approach, which considered the Olympic Games as a tool or a mirror of international relations, to a cultural perspective which mixes visual studies with Black, gender and Global South studies. Underscored are the roles played by the American neo-conservatives in the Moscow and Los Angeles Olympic boycotts or the struggle between the two superpowers over doping and anti-doping. The question of the IOCs independence is also raised.