The article discusses the importance of international sporting events for the formation of a foreign policy state. The author noted that for the first time to study the image of the state addressed in Western science in the mid-twentieth century, in domestic science issues of the image of the state began to engage in the late twentieth - early twenty-first century. Further, the work identifies seven areas of research image in the mainstream of domestic science, in which the main components, the structural components of the image of the state, types of images. Thus, the external image of the state can be formed through separate spheres; one of such fields is sports and sporting events. The article traces the history of theoretical understanding and research of sports mega-events. There are five major global processes that have an impact on the growth of the importance of sports mega-events, the main political and economic effects of sports mega-events that transform the foreign policy image of the state. In co