Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai denies being sexually assaulted

Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai met on Saturday (5) with IOC (International Olympic Committee) President Thomas Bach during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, the athlete said in an interview with French sports newspaper L’Equipe. , in which he denied having been sexually assaulted by former Chinese vice premier Zhang Gaoli.

At a dinner on Saturday, “we were able to talk in a pleasant way”, said the tennis player in the interview published on Monday (7).

“He [Bach] asked if I was thinking about competing again, what my projects were, what I foresee, etc.”, Peng explained in an interview with two L’Equipe journalists in a hotel inside the Beijing Olympic bubble.

Peng Shuai, 36, “looked in good shape”, according to journalists who conducted the interview, the athlete’s first with an independent international media outlet since November.

She said she had never disappeared, after spending several weeks without appearing in public after denouncing, in November last year on a social network, that she had had a forced sexual relationship for years with a leader of the Chinese regime.

“Simply many people, like my friends and people from the IOC, sent me messages and it was impossible to answer so many. But with my close friends I’m still in touch, I talked to them, I replied to their messages, and also with the WTA”, he added.

The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) maintains a firm stance of demanding explanations from China about Peng’s situation after the complaint.

The athlete’s complaint was deleted from the Chinese social network Weibo, and the tennis player disappeared from the public eye for weeks, which sparked fears about her situation, until she appeared in a video conference conversation with Thomas Bach on November 21.

On Thursday (3), two days before the meeting between Bach and Peng, the IOC said it would support the tennis player if she decided to demand the opening of an investigation into the report of forced sexual intercourse.

“If she wants an investigation [sobre as acusações]we will certainly support her, but it has to be her decision, it’s her life, it’s her accusations,” Bach told a news conference on the eve of the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Games.

Peng denied in the interview that he had reported a “sexual assault”.

“Sexual assault? I never said anyone made me suffer any sexual assault,” he insisted.

When asked why the complaint message was deleted from social media, she replied only “because I wanted it that way”.

“My life has been as it should be: nothing special”, commented the tennis player when asked about her life since November.

“First I would like people to really understand who I am: I’m a normal girl, a perfectly ordinary tennis player. Sometimes I’m calm, sometimes happy, sometimes sad. I can be very stressed or under a lot of pressure (…) All the feelings and reactions that women have, I feel it too,” he said.

The IOC confirmed in a statement that Bach and former IOC swimmer Kirsty Coventry had met with Peng, and highlighted that the tennis player would attend various Beijing Games events.

“The three agreed that any communication about the content of the meeting would be at the discretion of [de Peng]”, according to the statement.

The entity informed that the IOC reiterated the invitation for her to visit the Olympic headquarters in Switzerland.

In the interview, the tennis player announced the end of her professional career, except, perhaps, “in a team of veterans”, she said with a smile.

“Tennis has completely changed my life, given me joys, challenges and much more (…) Even if I no longer participate in professional competitions, I will always be a tennis player.”

After the complaint, the athlete only appeared in a few videos in which she watched sporting events, which was not enough to allay fears about her freedom after the complaint was made.