Abstract
The study examines governments' policy responses in sport during the pandemic casued by Covid-19. Applies Hood and Margetts' (2007) NATO approach to analysing national governments in China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, UK and USA use of policy instruments to affect the governance, access to and consumption of sport. Regardless of ideological persuasions, the five governments have framed exercise and sport as critical for citizens' wellbeing. The directions and limts of central government interventions in sprot depend both on the system of government and the ways that governments choose to engage with sport.