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sports Dialuna 22 november 2021
IOC says Peng Shuai has told Olympic officials she is safe

(AP) — Chinese tennis now,” the statement said. Olympics host nation. The
player Peng Shuai has Beijing Winter Games open
taken part in a 30-minute Peng, who played for China on Feb. 4.
video call from Beijing at three Olympics from 2008
with IOC officials and to 2016, made a sexual assault Bach has now invited Peng to
told them she was safe and allegation on social media join him at a dinner when he
well, the Olympic body three weeks ago against a for- arrives in Beijing in January
said on Sunday. mer member of the Commu- “which she gladly accepted,”
nist Party’s ruling Standing the IOC said. Terho and Li
The call came amid growing Committee, Zhang Gaoli. were also invited.
global alarm over Peng. Her
appearance at a youth tennis The post was removed within “I was relieved to see that
event Sunday in Beijing and minutes and the former top- Peng Shuai was doing fine,
social media posts on her be- ranked doubles player went which was our main con-
half did not fully convince missing from public view. cern,” Terho said in the IOC
people outside China that she dent of the Chinese Tennis based Olympic body said in a She did not respond publicly statement. The hockey player
has freedom to act, after she Association — appears to be statement. to calls for information to from Finland represents ath-
alleged a sexual assault against Peng’s first direct contact show she was safe. letes on the IOC executive
a former leading Communist with sports officials outside “She explained that she is safe board.
Party official. China since she disappeared and well, living at her home The International Olympic
from public view on Nov. 2. in Beijing, but would like to Committee has been criti- “She appeared to be relaxed,”
The call — with IOC presi- have her privacy respected cized for being relatively si- Terho said. “I offered her our
dent Thomas Bach, athletes Peng “thanked the IOC for at this time. That is why she lent in public as concern for support and to stay in touch
commission chair Emma its concern about her well- prefers to spend her time Peng grew in the past week. at any time of her conve-
Terho and IOC member Li being,” the Switzerland- with friends and family right It has pursued a “quiet diplo- nience, which she obviously
Lingwei, a former vice presi- macy” policy with the 2022 appreciated.”

Pumas end tough year with record defeat: ‘No excuse’

(AP) - Coach Mario Ledesma was rueful.
Ledesma went into the
rugby test against a ram- “We expected a different re-
pant Ireland believing his sult today and thought we
Pumas could beat them in had a pretty good tour —
Dublin for the first time a very good game against
on Sunday. France (lost 29-20), win-
ning convincingly against
After less than three minutes, Italy (37-16),” Ledesma said.
he was even more heartened, “Coming into this game with
after offloads by his side gave three weeks of work, we ex-
space for wing Mateo Carre- pected different.”
ras to step and surge clear for He lamented the damaging
the opening try, a beauty. effect the coronavirus pan-
demic has had on the Pumas.
But Argentina could not rely The Jaguares couldn’t return
on its lineout, Ireland could, to Super Rugby so the players
and the home side pulled were forced to find contracts
away with a forward-dom- in Europe. They haven’t been
inated power game for a re- able to play a home test since
cord 53-7 win over the visi- before the 2019 Rugby World
tors. Cup.

A hoped-for comeback in the The Pumas have been on
second half was undermined the road since June, stuck in
by the defective lineout and bubbles in Romania, Wales,
a yellow card to No. 8 Pablo South Africa, Australia,
Matera and red card for lock France, Italy, and Ireland.
Tomas Lavanini, and the Pu-
mas ended up conceding 50 “We are always talking about
points for the first time in player welfare and men-
eight years. tal health and then you go

two years without playing at Sometimes we have a day off so it has been tough and they
home and being in a bubble where we can go sightseeing have been grinding the whole
... I challenge any team to do but just for a picture and then year. These are the conditions
that, it would be a struggle,” we go back. we are playing in and we have
Ledesma said. “At the same not been getting the results.”
time, it is not an excuse. “It has been really hard on
the players and we don’t have Of their 11 tests, they won
“We have been in a bubble the budget to bring the fami- three and drew one.
everywhere we have gone. lies like some other teams do,