Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai said on Sunday that she had never accused anyone of sexual assault and was not going to travel abroad.
"First of all, it is important to stress one very important thing: I have never said or written about anyone raping me," Peng said in an interview with Singaporean newspaper Lianhe Zaobao.
When talking about the sexual assault accusations, which she deleted from her account on the Weibo social media platform, she said it was her "personal business," noting that there was a misunderstanding, Sputnik reported.
The tennis player added that she lived in Beijing without being watched and was not planning on travelling abroad due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shuai had sent shockwaves when she accused Zhang Gaoli, a senior Chinese government official, of sexual abuse. The highest-profile case in China's #MeToo movement was kept under tight wraps with the reputation of the officials involved safeguarded at all costs.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) last week said in a statement that its president, Thomas Bach, had a 30-minute video call with three-time Olympian Peng Shuai, joined by a Chinese sports official and an IOC official.
The statement said that, during the call, Peng appeared to be "doing fine" and "relaxed," and said she "would like to have her privacy respected". The IOC did not explain how the video call with Peng had been organized, given the difficulties other concerned parties have had reaching her.
( With inputs from ANI )
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