'I have serious doubts that [Peng Shuai] is free, safe and not subject to censorship, coercion and intimidation,' said WTA CEO Steven Simon.
This post has been updated to reflect the WTA's decision to suspend tournaments in China.disappeared from the public eye
for 19 days after accusing a retired government official of sexual assault, the Women's Tennis Association has suspended all WTA tournaments in China, including Hong Kong."In good conscience, I don't see how I can ask our athletes to compete there when Peng Shuai is not allowed to communicate freely and has seemingly been pressured to contradict her allegation of sexual assault," WTA chairman and CEO Steve Simon saidon Dec. 1.
Simon was referring to a Nov. 21 video call in which Peng met with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, Chair of the IOC Athletes' Commission Emma Terho, and Chinese IOC member Li Lingwei. Aafter the meeting said that Peng reported she is safe in Beijing and"would like to have her privacy respected at this time." Terho said that she". . . was relieved to see that Peng Shuai was doing fine, which was [their] main concern.
On Nov. 2, Peng posted on Weibo that retired Chinese official Zhang Gaoli sexually assaulted her in 2017. The post was taken down 30 minutes later, but screenshots from fans continued to circulate on social media. Prior to the video call, Peng had not been seen in public since the removal of the post. Global concerns were raised over her whereabouts by other athletes, like
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