Winter Olympics: Peng Shuai meets IOC chief, denies making accusation of assault

BEIJING (REUTERS, AFP) - Former top-ranked doubles tennis player Peng Shuai has met Olympic chief Thomas Bach at the Beijing Winter Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Monday (Feb 7).

The IOC said Peng, who sparked global concern in November when she fell silent after alleging that a former Chinese vice-premier, Zhang Gaoli, had forced her into sex, dined with Bach on Saturday and watched curling.

Peng reappeared in public nearly three weeks after her allegation and later withdrew it, insisting her online comments had been taken out of context. But fears for her safety and well-being remained.

Separately, in an interview published on Monday with French sports daily L'Equipe, Peng repeated her denial.

"I never said anyone had sexually assaulted me in any way," she said.

Asked why she deleted the social media post containing the allegation, Peng said: "Because I wanted to. There was a huge misunderstanding in the outside world following this post. I don't want the meaning of this post to be twisted anymore. And I don't want any further media hype around it.

"I'd like to say that feelings, sports and politics are three very distinct things. My love life problems, my personal life must not be mingled with sports and politics.

"And sports must not be politicised because when that happens, most of the time it means turning one's back on the Olympic spirit and it goes against the will of the sporting world and the athletes."

In her now-deleted post on China's Twitter-like Weibo, Peng had written "why did you take me to your house and force me into having relations with you?", though she also described the relationship with Zhang as an on-off one that was also consensual.

Peng has not updated her Weibo account since the post was removed.

Discussion of the scandal has been heavily censored in China's tightly controlled cyberspace and searches for Peng's name on Weibo continue to show no recent search results.

Asked about the interview by Reuters on Monday, Bach said it was up to Peng to communicate her situation.

"We said what we had to say, the communication is up to her, it is her life, it is her story and this is why the communication is up to her," the German said.

In a statement on Monday, the IOC said Peng would attend several events at the Games.

She also plans to travel to Europe after the pandemic and visit the IOC headquarters in Switzerland, it added.

Peng also said a previous knee injury that had required several operations and her age made it unlikely she would compete professionally again.