IOC cowardice exposed by dereliction of duty

The email purporting to confirm Peng Shuai’s safety was of dubious enough provenance for Steve Simon, head of the Women’s Tennis Association, to question the notion she wrote it. “Everything is fine”: these were words that seemed to suit the Chinese state, facing rising outrage over Peng’s allegation that its former vice-premier had sexually assaulted her, far more than the athlete herself, of whom nothing reassuring has been heard for 16 days.

Look closely at the message and it is absurdly unconvincing: there is no photograph, no video footage, no mark of authenticity at all. Bizarrely, a cursor mark is still visible in the middle of the second sentence, as if the supposed email has just been hastily screen-shot mid-edit. And yet somehow this met the credibility test of arguably the most powerful sports organisation in the world. “We have seen the latest reports,” wrote Mark Adams, spokesman for the International Olympic Committee, “and are encouraged by the reassurances that she is safe.”

Amid global horror over the disappearance of Peng, two models of leadership are emerging. One is established by the WTA, where Simon has shown integrity and no small amount of courage in demanding explanations from China. At a time when too many governing bodies quiver in terror about offending their international partners, he responded quickly to the risible statement attributed to the Chinese, calling for verifiable proof that she is unharmed, as well as asserting the right of women to have their voices heard, not censored. Given the WTA has much to lose by upsetting the Chinese Communist Party, not least the lucrative tour finals staged in Shenzhen before the pandemic, their actions have been commendably forthright.

Then you have the IOC approach. The Peng scandal shines a light on their cowardice. Peng is a three-time Olympian, having represented her country in Beijing, London and Rio. She is somebody whom the IOC ought to feel duty-bound to defend.

Alas, where the WTA has the fortitude to place her well-being above its own business interests, the IOC adopts the opposite logic. Even when a young woman has had every online trace of her existence expunged in China, after accusing Zhang Gaoli of forcing her into sex, the IOC stands meekly to the side, wary of doing anything that might jeopardise the Winter Games in 11 weeks’ time.

We have seen this modus operandi before. When entire neighborhoods were bulldozed in Beijing in the lead-up to the 2008 Olympics, the IOC threatened zero sanctions over human-rights abuses. Now the 2022 instalment is poised to ride roughshod over reports of mass persecution of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province, which the US State Department has described as a “genocide”, IOC president Thomas Bach remains mute. His one recent intervention was to acclaim Olympic organisers for their “great progress”.

The only hope is that the more savage the backlash to China grows, the more untenable the IOC’S spineless reluctance to engage with Peng’s situation becomes. For all that the plight of the Uighurs should have activated Bach’s moral compass by now, the worries for Peng could leave him with nowhere to hide.

A female veteran of three Games has just vanished, claiming to have been sexually violated by one of the top political grandees in a country that Bach now seeks to glorify. Now, his PR man appears satisfied by an email that could scarcely look less bona fide if it arrived in the average person’s spam folder. The IOC is committing a dereliction of duty that, for Peng’s sake, must not be allowed to stand.

It stands meekly to the side, wary of doing anything to jeopardise the Winter Games