Games under a leaden cover

He is the man who does not fear China.

The man for whom principles are more important than money.

The man who has the courage of his convictions.

Her name: Steve Simon, president of the WTA, the Association of Professional Women Tennis Players.

Last week, Simon announced that the WTA will not host any tournament in China until light is shed on Peng Shuai’s sexual assault charge against former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli. Chinese minister.

“In good conscience, I don’t see how I can ask our athletes to play there when Peng Shuai is not allowed to communicate freely and seems to have been pressured to deny his allegation of sexual assault,” Simon said in a statement.

He said he hoped that leaders around the world will fight for Peng Shuai to obtain justice, regardless of the “financial ramifications.”

The delicate files allow the true leaders to reveal themselves. With aplomb and panache, Steve Simon stands out as an exceptional sports leader. In professional sport, money is a major influence in almost all decisions. This reality makes his words all the more exceptional.

The Peng Shuai case erupted on November 2. In a post on a Chinese social network, the 35-year-old player wrote that Zhang Gaoli, a long-time member of the Chinese Communist Party’s Political Bureau, raped her three years ago. The government quickly erased Peng Shuai’s message and launched a massive disinformation operation.

A survey published Wednesday by The New York Times describes the plan. On the one hand, eliminate references to the case on social networks and websites in China; on the other, attacking foreign critics using state-controlled commentators and fake Twitter accounts.

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The WTA’s position is courageous, since its ties with China are lucrative. A ten-year contract, signed in 2018, awarded the presentation of the annual final to the city of Shenzhen, which built an amphitheater to host the competition. The scholarships paid to female players have been doubled. Other WTA tournaments are also presented in this country, a major driver of growth for the tennis industry.

It is obviously easier to suspend WTA tournaments than the Olympics. However, the contrast remains stark between Simon’s reaction to the Peng Shuai affair and that of the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach. He is challenged by the situation, because Peng Shuai is a former Olympian. In addition, the Winter Games will be presented in Beijing next February.

Bach could have shown guts and demanded concrete responses from China. Is Peng Shuai’s accusation under investigation? Why does his alleged aggressor, regardless of his ties to the Communist Party, seem so protected? Why did you orchestrate a vast censorship operation in Chinese social networks? Why was it impossible to reach Peng Shuai before she released a statement where, very suspiciously, she denied the facts raised in her initial message?

Instead, Bach lent himself to an embarrassing masquerade. He chatted with Peng Shuai via video conference and assured the world that she was doing well. Look, he even announced that he would go to a restaurant with her during her stay in Beijing next winter.

In its press releases on the subject, the IOC never mentions the alleged crime. The Olympic movement – alas! – does not even need China to censor itself: it does it itself.

Over the years, I have watched the IOC and its senior leaders deal with delicate issues such as the corruption in the award of the Salt Lake City Games in 2002 and the Russian doping scandal at the Sochi Games in 2014. Their responses to these crises were not unanimous. But the IOC still showed its teeth and did not fall into the ventrism.

This time, under the guise of “quiet diplomacy”, the IOC wraps itself in an embarrassing slackness and Thomas Bach tarnishes his legacy.

The objective of his strategy is clear: to calm things down and maintain correct relations with the Chinese government in the hope that the Winter Games will be held in peace. Why ? Because the Games are such a complex adventure that conflicting ties between the IOC and the organizing committee are a recipe for disaster. Bach obviously wants to avoid such a scenario.

But Bach didn’t have to go through what looks like a Chinese government cover-up. He could have shown his dissatisfaction. Like Simon, he could have established his limits.

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Bach’s sentimentality has consequences.

This week, a German media outlet asked him if athletes around the world will be safe in Beijing. The “security” issue is regularly raised before the Summer or Winter Games because of potential terrorist acts. What is unusual this time around is that the fears are linked to the government of the host country.

Here then is the IOC obliged to reassure the international athletes. The Inside The Games website quotes IOC Olympic Games Director Christophe Dubi: “The safety of the athletes participating in the Games is guaranteed. ”

Regardless, a leaden cover already envelops these Games. Because of China’s multiple human rights abuses – the genocide of the Uyghurs foremost – the United States launched a “diplomatic boycott” of the Beijing Games, a boycott joined by Canada, the Great Britain. Brittany, Australia and New Zealand. Athletes from these countries will participate in the competitions, but dignitaries will stay at home.

This will do nothing to lessen the anger of the Chinese government… and the clumsy attempts to appease the IOC.