Where is Peng Shuai? For a brief moment during the Winter Olympics last year I had an answer, of sorts, to that deeply troubling question. For there she was, suddenly and without warning, at the Big Air final, watching the Chinese‑American superstar Eileen Gu soar and spin through the Beijing sky to take gold. At first I wondered from my vantage point in the press stands whether it was really Peng. The presence of the International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach, and a swarm of photographers, answered that. Soon images…
Tag: Peng Shuai
WTA Lifts Suspension on Tournaments in China
The WTA will resume operating tournaments in China later this year after having suspended events there in late 2021 because of concerns about the Chinese player Peng Shuai. The return, announced Thursday, is also a retreat. When Peng, one of China’s biggest tennis stars, accused a former top Chinese government official of sexual assault in a social media post in November 2021, the WTA and Steve Simon, its chairman and chief executive, took a strong stance. The WTA called for a “full and transparent” inquiry into Peng’s allegations, which were…
WTA will return to China after ending boycott over Peng Shuai concerns
WTA tournaments will return to China this year after the Tour ended its boycott over concerns about the safety of the Chinese player Peng Shuai. The decision represents a significant U-turn in the Women’s Tennis Association’s policy since its president and chief executive, Steve Simon, took the decision to suspend tournaments in China in December 2021 after a high-profile row with Beijing over the player’s wellbeing. Peng had accused Zhang Gaoli, the former Chinese vice-premier, of sexual assault in a lengthy post on the Chinese social media platform Weibo. The…
Return to China will require a resolution of Peng Shuai case, says Women’s Tennis Association
The return of WTA tournaments to China in 2023 will hinge on a resolution to the Peng Shuai issue, with the governing body of the women’s game telling Reuters on Wednesday it had still not personally met with the Chinese former doubles world number one personally since she briefly disappeared last year. Peng accused Chinese former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault in 2021 in a post on social media which was soon removed from the country’s internet. She later said the post was “an enormous misunderstanding” and that she…
Activists to revisit controversial ‘Where is Peng Shuai’ protests at January Australian Open
Activists plan to reprise their controversial “Where is Peng Shuai?” protest at next month’s grand slam, with the support of three-time Australian Open winner Martina Navratilova. At this year’s Open in January, Tennis Australia was criticised for initially confiscating the shirts, citing a ban on “commercial or political” material. The decision was later reversed. Protesters say hundreds of new “Where is Peng Shuai?” shirts have already been printed with plans to hand out 1,000 to tennis fans outside the Australian Open gates. Peng disappeared from public view for several weeks…
WTA Finals Set for Texas This Year, but a Return to China Is Uncertain
The WTA announced Tuesday that Fort Worth would host its annual season-ending WTA Finals this year. The tournament, which will begin Oct. 31, said it had a one-year agreement to play in Fort Worth, “with the event thereafter due to return to Shenzhen, China.” But the WTA said the suspension of its tournaments in China remained in place, leaving the WTA Finals’ return to China in 2023 uncertain. WTA tournaments in China have been suspended since December, when Steve Simon, the tour’s chairman and chief executive, announced the decision, after…
Peng Shuai demonstrators at Wimbledon allege harassment by security staff
Activists wearing “Where is Peng Shuai?” T-shirts claim they were confronted by Wimbledon security staff who warned them against approaching spectators and political messaging at SW19. Nine-time champion Martina Navratilova expressed her anger at the move after the campaigners posted a video online saying they were stopped and questioned. The group of four men from the Free Tibet campaign said they came to Wimbledon to “raise a bit of awareness” about the Chinese tennis player, a former doubles world No 1. The 36-year-old disappeared from public view for weeks last…
Chinese Tennis Star, Zheng Qinwen, Emerges During French Open
PARIS — To keep things simpler for her Mandarin-challenged Western friends, the rising Chinese tennis star Zheng Qinwen often goes by the nickname Ana. But if you watch the teenage Zheng hit a forehand, a serve or just about any shot on a tennis court, her first English-language nickname seems more appropriate. “At the real beginning at IMG, they called me Fire,” she said in an interview at the French Open on Friday, referring to her management company, IMG. There is indeed plenty of power and passion in Zheng’s game,…
Strong Stance on China and Peng Shuai Helps Land WTA a New Title Sponsor
The WTA has been an outlier in its approach to China. The ATP, which operates the men’s tennis tour, has not suspended its Chinese tournaments, and other professional leagues, including the N.B.A., have been reticent to confront Chinese authorities directly. Peng has reappeared in recent weeks and given some controlled interviews, claiming that she deleted the social media post herself and that she had been misunderstood and had not made sexual assault allegations. But the WTA, still lacking direct contact with Peng, has maintained its position. “We’ve been watching very…
The Kamila Valieva case shows yet again that the IOC is betraying teen athletes
A fish rots from the head. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is the head of the Olympic movement, and it is rotten to the core. Long ago, this vile organisation abandoned its stated principles of “excellence, friendship and respect” to embrace greed, corruption and abuse. For many, the enduring image of Bejing 2022 will not be one of Olympic glory, but the tragic and bizarre spectacle attending the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and 15-year-old figure skater Kamila Valieva. Once again, the Russians got caught cheating: Valieva tested positive for a…