Inside Tokyo's decision to delay the Olympics

TOKYO/LAUSANNE - Officials in charge of staging Tokyo's Olympic Games crowded around a low table inside Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's residence late Tuesday, wincing as they spoke by phone with the head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Minutes later, Abe emerged to inform a gaggle of reporters that he had just spoken with Thomas Bach, the IOC's president, and that they had agreed to officially delay the Tokyo Olympics.

The evening call between Abe and Bach concluded days and weeks of negotiations between Tokyo and Lausanne, where the IOC is based, and came after repeated public denials by Japanese officials that a pandemic might derail the Games.

Through interviews with more than a dozen people involved in the process over recent weeks, Reuters has pieced together an account of the frenetic days that led to Tuesday's announcement.

It was an extraordinary turnaround for an Olympics that was expected to be held without major issues by a country known for public safety and economic stability. It also revealed a fatal miscalculation by Japanese and IOC officials of public sentiment at a time of heightened fears over the coronavirus.

In the days leading up to the decision, organizers of the Games were under pressure from major players in global sports: sponsors wanting updates on event plans, powerful sports federations worried about athlete safety, and Japanese officials seeking to maintain a united front to support the 2020 Games.

But ultimately, it was the growing chorus of concerns from famous athletes and nations under lockdown that sunk Tokyo's hopes to hold the Olympics as planned in July, according to senior officials at the IOC and on Tokyo's organizing committee.

Japan's government did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

Reuters