diff --git a/roles/container-engine/cri-o/defaults/main.yml b/roles/container-engine/cri-o/defaults/main.yml
index 2502c535e..5525790d1 100644
--- a/roles/container-engine/cri-o/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/roles/container-engine/cri-o/defaults/main.yml
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 crio_cgroup_manager: "{{ kubelet_cgroup_driver | default('systemd') }}"
 crio_conmon: "{{ bin_dir }}/conmon"
+crio_default_runtime: "crun"
 crio_libexec_dir: "/usr/libexec/crio"
 crio_enable_metrics: false
 crio_log_level: "info"
diff --git a/roles/container-engine/cri-o/templates/crio.conf.j2 b/roles/container-engine/cri-o/templates/crio.conf.j2
index 187470a23..d20e14dc8 100644
--- a/roles/container-engine/cri-o/templates/crio.conf.j2
+++ b/roles/container-engine/cri-o/templates/crio.conf.j2
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ grpc_max_recv_msg_size = 16777216
 
 # default_runtime is the _name_ of the OCI runtime to be used as the default.
 # The name is matched against the runtimes map below.
-default_runtime = "crun"
+default_runtime = "{{ crio_default_runtime }}"
 
 # If true, the runtime will not use pivot_root, but instead use MS_MOVE.
 no_pivot = false