Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai has again denied making sexual assault allegations against a retired senior Communist Party leader and revealed that returning to competition is "practically impossible" in an interview Sunday in Beijing with French sports newspaper L’Equipe.
The interview —only the second she is known to have given to a foreign media outlet —was conducted on the sidelines of the Beijing Winter Olympics, where Peng is attending some of the events. She was accompanied by Wang Kan, the Chinese Olympic Committee chief of staff.
In the nearly hour-long interview, Peng reiterated:
"I never said anyone had sexually assaulted me in any way," and said she herself had erased an explosive social media post from November, in which she accused former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of pressuring her into having sex during their years-long affair.
Zhang has not issued any response to the accusation and has remained outside of public view.
Peng appeared to acknowledge the relationship in the interview, saying that “my love life problems, my personal life must not be mingled with sports and politics.”
When asked why she deleted the post on Chinese platform Weibo, she replied: "Because I wanted to."
Peng also told the French outlet, which published the interview in English, that her professional tennis career may be over.
"If you take my age (36 years old), my multiple surgeries and the pandemic which forced me to stop playing for so long, I think it'll be very hard for me to get back to the level I was physically speaking," Peng said.
Following the initial allegations, concern grew over her safety and whereabouts, which led the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) to suspend its tournaments in China.
IOC dinner: Peng told L'Equipe she had dinner with IOC President Thomas Bach in Beijing during the Olympics.
"We had dinner together on Saturday and we had a nice discussion and exchange. He asked me whether I am considering competing again, what my projects are, what I'm planning to do," she said.