Peng Shuai last month said she had never accused anyone of sexually assaulting her, and that a social media post she had made had been misunderstood. Photograph: Andy Brownbill/AP Peng Shuai IOC says it talked with Peng Shuai last week and will meet her in Beijing Olympic body has ‘kept in touch’ with Chinese tennis star Tennis world has been widely concerned for Peng’s welfare

The International Olympic Committee has said it had a conversation with the Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai last week and plans to meet her in Beijing during next month’s Winter Olympics.

Peng’s situation became a matter of concern in November when the former women’s No 1 doubles player alleged that a former Chinese vice premier, Zhang Gaoli, had sexually assaulted her in the past. After that post, she was absent from public view for nearly three weeks.

An IOC spokesperson said: “Since the first call that the IOC held with Peng Shuai on 21 November 2021, the IOC team has kept in touch with her and had a number of conversations with her, the last one just the past week.”

Last month Peng said she had never accused anyone of sexually assaulting her, adding that a social media post she had made had been misunderstood. Zhang has not commented on the matter.

“First, I need to stress one point that is extremely important, I have never said or written that anyone has sexually assaulted me, I have to clearly stress this point,” Peng said in a video posted by Lianhe Zaobao. She said her deleted Weibo post was a “private matter”.

On Tuesday, Australian Open organisers reversed the tournament’s ban on “Where is Peng Shuai?” T-shirts being worn following a widespread backlash to the tournament’s claim that they constituted “commercial or political” material.

Source: The Guardian

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