Considering the economic impact of hosting the Olympic Games, this work explores the relationship between the Chinese and international equity markets before and after the two Olympic Games hosted in China. We choose SSEC as the representative of the Chinese equity market and DJI and N225 as the representatives of the international equity market. In addition, we compare the impacts of the summer and winter Olympics. Through the event analysis perspective, the entire sample is divided, and then the relationship between equity markets in different periods is analysed. First, the test results show that DJI affects SSEC at all times, but SSEC cannot affect DJI. Second, we cannot find a linkage between SSEC and N225. However, the Hatemi-J test revealed that there was a significant asymmetric relationship between markets during the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics, and this asymmetric structure changed in the later stages of the Olympic Games. Additionally, the asymmetric structure is inconsistent between the summer and winter Olympic periods. This work may therefore be of great value for improving economic efficiency, avoiding financial risks, or optimizing portfolio decisions.