“He asked me if I was thinking of going back to the competition, what my projects were, what I anticipate, etc.“, Peng explained in the interview with two L’Equipe journalists in a hotel inside the Beijing Olympic bubble.
Dressed in red and black sportswear, Peng Shuai, 36, “appeared in good shape,” according to the journalists who conducted the interview, the first with an independent international outlet since November.
She took the opportunity to say that “she never disappeared”, after spending weeks without appearing in public after denouncing last November on a social network that she had a forced sexual relationship for years with a Chinese leader, Vice Prime Minister Zhang Gaoli.
“Simply, many people like my friends and people from the IOC sent me messages and it was impossible for me to answer so many messages.. But with my close friends I am still in close contact, I have spoken with them, responded to their messages, and also with the WTA,” she added.
The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has maintained a firm position of demanding explanations from China about Peng’s situation after his complaint.
Peng’s complaint was deleted from the Chinese social network Weibo, and the tennis player disappeared from the public eye for weeks.raising fears about his situation, until he appeared in a videoconference conversation with Thomas Bach on November 21.
sexual assault? I have never said that someone has made me suffer any sexual assault
On Thursday, two days before Bach and Peng meet, the IOC said it would “support” the tennis player if she decides to demand the opening of an investigation into the allegation of a forced sexual relationship.
“If she wants an investigation (on the complaint) it is sure that we will support her, but it has to be her decision, that is the way, it is her accusations,” Bach said at a press conference on the eve of the opening of the Games. from Peking.
Peng denied in the interview that he had reported a “sexual assault.”
“sexual assault? I have never said that someone has made me suffer any sexual assault“, he insisted.
When asked why the complaint message was deleted, she replied “because I wanted it that way.”