Peng Shuai makes appearances in Olympic closed loop and ends her public silence

BEIJING — Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai entered the Olympic closed loop to meet with International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach, and opened up to a French newspaper.

But amid this effort to make it appear that everything is fine in Peng’s life, questions remain about her safety and how free she is to express herself following her allegation — and then retraction — of sexual assault against a former high-ranking Chinese Communist Party official.

“Sexual assault? I never said that anyone made me submit to a sexual assault,” Peng told L’Equipe in an hour-long interview with many restrictions. She said her November social media post “resulted in an enormous misunderstanding from the outside world.”

Peng also claimed that she never disappeared, although the Women’s Tennis Association had concerns about her whereabouts.

“Everyone could see me,” Peng said. “It’s just that a lot of people, like my friends, including from the IOC, messaged me, and it was quite impossible to reply to so many messages.”

While she thanked everyone for caring about her, she said, “But I didn’t think there would be such concern and I would like to know: why such concern?”

The IOC was the first organization to get in touch with Peng, who is an Olympian, and invited her to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics for a meeting.

Peng had dinner Saturday night with Bach and Kirsty Coventry, an IOC member and former chair of the Athletes’ Commission. She was standing in for the current chair, Emma Terho, who was on the IOC’s initial video-conference with Peng. Terho is currently under COVID-19 protocols.

Peng and Coventry then attended the curling match between China and Norway, but seem to have gone unnoticed. The IOC released a statement Monday morning saying the three spoke about their Olympic experiences, and Peng expressed disappointment she did not qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Games.

Bach invited her to travel to Lausanne, Switzerland after the pandemic and visit the IOC headquarters and Olympic Museum “to continue the conversation on their Olympic experiences,” the press release said. “Peng Shuai accepted this invitation.”

According to the IOC, Peng planned to attend more events at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

She and Coventry, who is from Zimbabwe, also said they would remain in contact.

“And all three agreed that any further communication about the content of the meeting would be left to her discretion,” the IOC said.

When pressed during the daily briefing at the main media center, IOC spokesman Mark Adams said the organization was carrying out “personal quiet diplomacy” to keep in touch with Peng.

“We as a sports organization are doing everything to ensure she is happy,” he said, “and I don’t think it’s up to us to judge in one way, just as it’s not up to you to judge in one way or another her position.”

While Bach had said he would support an investigation into the allegation of sexual assault if Peng wanted to initiate one, Adams said it was not up to the IOC to make that call. He pointed to the article appearing Monday in L’Equipe that was based on an hour-long interview Sunday.

“I think we also need to listen to her and read what she is saying,” Adams said. “We’re doing everything we can to make sure the situation is as it should be.”

That echoed what Peng told the newspaper when it asked what her life has been like since the November social media post.

“It is as it should be: Nothing special,” she replied.

L’Equipe said the interview had many restrictions. The newspaper had to submit questions in advance. A Chinese Olympic Committee official accompanied Peng and translated her comments, which had to be printed verbatim in a Q&A format.

She blamed technology issues for her public silence. She also said the reason the post was gone within 30 minutes was because, “I erased it. Why? Because I wanted to.”

Peng also said her “private life should not be involved in sports and politics.”

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