(Note: A few hours after we published this episode, Japan and the IOC announced that the Olympics will, in fact, be postponed until 2021.)

Yesterday, a member of the International Olympic Committee told a reporter that the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be postponed until next year. This came a day after the IOC announced that it would make a decision within the next four weeks, and after both Canada and Australia said they would not participate in the Games if they were held this summer. The Athletic’s Matt Slater joins us to explain how the IOC has gone about making this complicated decision, how exactly a country delays an event as massive as the Olympics, and what challenges the imminent delay poses to athletes.

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https://theathletic.com/author/matt-slater/?source=theleadpodcast

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