The International Olympic Committee, headed by Thomas Bach, has informed the world that Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai is âsafe and wellâ. The Wimbledon and French Open doubles champion had accused a former senior Chinese government official of forcing her to have sex, without consent.
The social media post that made this public was taken down by Chinese authorities. Peng too disappeared. Chinaâs foreign ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian, hoped that the âmalicious hyping, let alone politicisationâ of the episode would cease after the âvideo call with the IOC president Bachâ. The IOC had been turned into a prop, its credibility serving as a hired alibi to be trotted out every time Peng got mentioned.
An editorial in the pro-government newspaper Global Times predicted that âideological conflicts between China and the West would escalate before the Winter Olympics.â China reckoned this was a cynical western conspiracy to imperil the Games.
The IOCâs most shameful framing of the issue came in the statement: âNevertheless, she will continue to be involved in tennis, the sport she loves so much.â As if the magic of sports, of serves and volleys, of steering young Chinese players towards Slams success, could erase Pengâs trauma.
This was not the first time that the IOC bought into its own myth that âsports cures everythingâ, while showing scant regard for one of its own. By diminishing Pengâs allegations by not even acknowledging them and losing an opportunity to explain consent to young athletes who remain vulnerable to sexual predators due to power imbalances in sporting ecosystems, the IOC had strapped on its blinkers.
At stake for the IOC are the Winter Games in Beijing and Zhangjiakou in February. CGTN cited Chinese ambitions of generating 1 trillion yuan ($146 billion), building 650 skating rinks and 800 ski resorts, and growing its winter recreation sector. For the IOC, it is another commercial high-stakes adventure. No stranger to existing in bubbles, the IOC prizes the fittest human bodies, while staying oblivious to human rights.
The embarrassing 1936 Games when Nazi Germany brazenly used sports for its fascist propaganda ought to have disabused the IOC of all notions of the Olympics being about fun, fitness and friendship. The Tlatelolco massacre ahead of the Mexico 1968 Games saw protestors shot dead by government forces, days before the opening ceremony. Chinaâs mistreatment of Uighurs and the crushing of freedoms in Tibet and Hong Kong and Russiaâs abysmal record on LGBTQI+ rights, have been ignored.
Such is the history of the IOCâs closeness with authoritarian regimes that build them grand ice castles and enormous sporting arenas shaped like nests, that Bachâs promise to Peng, that he will catch up with her over dinner when heâs in Beijing, is a signal that the show must go on â while refusing to address her grave allegations.
But like the transparent, double-glass facades of the Olympic House at Lausanne, built to keep out the din of the nearby motorway, shutting out inconvenient political noise is ingrained in the organisation. Donât expect it to question Paris or Los Angeles â the next set of hosts â about the hate crimes or gun violence that kill ordinary folk in France and the US.
Bach would have been a witness to how the passage of time has reflected in womenâs sport and the self-assertion of athletes, from Nadia Comaneci to Simone Biles. He was at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, winning a gold medal as a fencer. It wouldnât have escaped him that the IOCâs Article 50 shunting protests by athletes to outside the field of play, or the âhuman rights clauseâ scribbled into the hosting rights contract in 2017, are changes moving at a glacial pace.
Young athletesâ patience with the ornate, insular baronships that head sports administration is shortening with each passing Games.
The Womenâs Tennis Association has dug its heels in to ensure that Peng can speak freely and that her torment is addressed. This has little to do with the Winter Games conundrum. Last heard, tennis had grass, clay and hardcourts, and didnât need to be played on thin ice.
This column first appeared in the print edition on November 26, 2021 under the title âA sham and a shameâ. Write to the author at shivani.naik@expressindia.com
