Skip to main content
Thursday, November 12, 2026Nov 12
Subscribe
All Sections
Search
More

IOC says Peng Shuai has told Olympic officials she is safe

FILE - China's Peng Shuai reacts during her first round singles match against Japan's Nao Hibino at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia on Jan. 21, 2020. The editor of a Communist Party newspaper posted a video online that he said showed missing tennis star Peng Shuai watching a match Sunday, Nov. 21, 2021 as the ruling party tried to quell fears abroad while suppressing information in China about Peng after she accused a senior leader of sexual assault. (AP Photo/Andy Brownbill, File)
FILE - China's Peng Shuai reacts during her first round singles match against Japan's Nao Hibino at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia on Jan. 21, 2020. The editor of a Communist Party newspaper posted a video online that he said showed missing tennis star Peng Shuai watching a match Sunday, Nov. 21, 2021 as the ruling party tried to quell fears abroad while suppressing information in China about Peng after she accused a senior leader of sexual assault. (AP Photo/Andy Brownbill, File) FILE - China's Peng Shuai reacts during her first round singles match against Japan's Nao Hibino at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia on Jan. 21, 2020. The editor of a Communist Party newspaper posted a video online that he said showed missing tennis star Peng Shuai watching a match Sunday, Nov. 21, 2021 as the ruling party tried to quell fears abroad while suppressing information in China about Peng after she accused a senior leader of sexual assault. (AP Photo/Andy Brownbill, File)

By Associated Press 2 min read

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) – Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai has taken part in a 30-minute video call from Beijing with IOC officials and told them she was safe and well, the Olympic body said on Sunday.

The call came amid growing global alarm over Peng. Her appearance at a youth tennis event Sunday in Beijing and social media posts on her behalf did not fully convince people outside China that she has freedom to act, after she alleged a sexual assault against a former leading Communist Party official.

The call – with IOC president Thomas Bach, athletes commission chair Emma Terho and IOC member Li Lingwei, a former vice president of the Chinese Tennis Association – appears to be Peng’s first direct contact with sports officials outside China since she disappeared from public view on Nov. 2.

Peng “thanked the IOC for its concern about her well-being,” the Switzerland-based Olympic body said in a statement.

“She explained that she is safe and well, living at her home in Beijing, but would like to have her privacy respected at this time. That is why she prefers to spend her time with friends and family right now,” the statement said.