ABSTRACT
The chapter begins by examining the paracrisis of LGBTQ athletes in Sochi and extending the rhetorical arena to paracrisis research. The rhetorical arena served as a multi-vocal approach, recognizing that the concept of crisis communication does not only pertain to the organization in crisis. Additionally, the rhetorical arena model operates under the assumption that communication is mediated through the context, media, genre, and text, allowing for a more detailed understanding of both text and context of a situation. The chapter analyzes the public responses by three prominent voices of the rhetorical arena: The United States Olympic Committee, President Obama, and the host country, Russia. It offers remarks about the way this paracrisis was managed by simply rearticulating Cold War rhetoric through refutation. President Obama used the situation to denounce Russian politics while openly supporting LGBTQ rights in the United States, ultimately painting the United States as a progressive and accepting country.
