The article is devoted to a comparative analysis of the security of the XXIX Summer Olympic Games in 2008 and the XXIV Winter Olympic Games in 2022 held in China. At the 2008 Games the main threat came from international and domestic terrorism. Therefore, to protect the Olympics, significant forces of the army and police were involved. Many different weapons, military and special equipment were involved, including means for detecting radioactive, chemical, explosive and other dangerous substances. At the same time, the role of the military and other security forces in protecting the Olympics was widely reported in the Chinese media in order to warn and frighten potential terrorists and other hostile forces. The main threat to the 2022 Games was the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought anti-epidemiological work to the fore. Under these conditions the organization of the security of the Olympic Games required different, new approaches, although the experience of the 2020 Olympics held in 2021 in Tokyo was used. The following general principles of pandemic prevention were used: simplified competition management, vaccination, closed-loop management, efficient disposal, integration of prevention and control, unified planning and comprehensive accounting. The complex and diverse process of ensuring the security of the Olympics in China in 2008 and 2022 had much in common (the creation of unified coordinating security agencies, the use of foreign experience, cooperation with foreign intelligence services, the use of special technical means). Security has become a fundamental prerequisite and an important guarantee for the success of the Olympics in China in both 2008 and 2022.