International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach confirmed Thursday he has plans while in Beijing to meet with Peng Shuai, a tennis player who disappeared from public view after making a sexual assault accusation against a powerful Chinese official.
Speaking in a press conference at the Beijing Games Main Media Centre, Bach confirmed he is to meet the professional tennis player and three-time Summer Olympian to confirm her current status and well-being.
"We will have the meeting. I am very happy and grateful to Peng Shuai," Bach said, going on to explain she will have to enter the Beijing Games' closed-loop coronavirus bubble to meet him.
Bach and the IOC came under fire after video calls the president had with Peng in November and December last year were criticized for appearing to be stage-managed.
Bach said the approach in his initial video calls with Peng was to find an answer to the question, "Where is Peng Shuai?"
"This is why we took this approach to get in contact and know where she is," he said.
Asked whether he is concerned the sexual assault allegations Peng made against China's former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli on social media in November, and later deleted, had been covered up and ignored, Bach stressed the process needs to be driven by the victim.
"This is what we are, step by step, trying to find out to see if she wants to have an inquiry and, of course, we would support her in this," he said.
"But this has to be her decision, it is her life, it is her allegation."
