Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai has contacted IOC officials for the first time since her disappearance

Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai has contacted the officials of the International Olympic Committee for the first time since her disappearance. About it informs Associated Press.

The agency notes that the athlete got in touch via video link. Peng Shuai spoke for 30 minutes with representatives of the IOC, including the head of the organization, Thomas Bach. She “thanked the IOC for their concern for her well-being.”

“She explained that she is safe and healthy, that she lives in her home in Beijing, but she would like her privacy to be respected at this time. So now she prefers to spend time with friends and family, ”the IOC quoted the agency as saying.

Peng Shuai contacted the IOC amid growing concerns about her fate. Earlier it became known that the women’s tennis association WTA ready to stop relations with China due to the disappearance of tennis player Peng Shuai.

“We are definitely ready to end our business and deal with all the attendant complications. Since this is more than a business. Women need to be respected, not censored. We contacted her on every phone number, e-mail address and other forms of communication, and so far have not been able to receive an answer. Whether she was forced to write this letter, whether someone else wrote it for her, we do not know. We won’t rest until we have a chance to talk to her, ”said WTA head Steve Simon.

On November 2, Peng Shuai posted a post on her Weibo account in which she accused former Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Zhang Gaoli of forcing her to have sex for several years. The post was quickly removed, and the name of the Chinese tennis player was removed from the Chinese internet and social media. The athlete herself also disappeared.

The WTA has demanded a full and impartial investigation into Peng Shuai’s reports of sexual assault.

Later, the Chinese news channel CGTN published a letter from the tennis player, in which she denied reports of sexual abuse, saying that she had not disappeared and that everything was fine with her.

In the WTA rankings, Peng Shuai is ranked 306th in singles and 192nd in doubles. She was the first racket in the doubles category in the world, and the highest position in the singles – 14th. She has won two doubles Grand Slam tournaments.