In some professional sports circles, apparently all it takes to make athletes forget their high-minded principles is the waving of a wad of dollars under their noses. Sure, they’re quick to take a symbolic knee or wear an armband to raise awareness for a good cause, but lonely are those brave athletes who dare to sacrifice participation in high-dollar tournaments to warn oppressive governments against outrageous human rights abuses.
Consider the case of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai. Last month, she alleged on social media that she was sexually abused by Zhang Gaoli, a former vice premier and top organizer of the upcoming Winter Olympics in China. Peng quickly went missing. The government wiped out everything she had ever posted online anywhere. In no time, it was as if she had never existed.
Her disappearance raised serious concerns within the tennis world, prompting top players to voice public concerns. China responded by posting a statement purportedly from Peng retracting her own allegations. “I’m not missing, nor am I unsafe. I’ve just been resting at home and everything is fine,” a posting in her name said. It was, of course, a work of pure fiction by her Chinese government captors.
The Women’s Tennis Association boldly announced suspension of all its events in China and Hong Kong. “In good conscience, I don’t see how I can ask our athletes to compete there when Peng Shuai is not allowed to communicate freely and has seemingly been pressured to contradict her allegation of sexual assault,” association Chairman Steve Simon stated. He acknowledged the “financial ramifications” of this decision.
The association waited for the professional sporting world to line up in solidarity and put China on notice. And the sporting world responded with a collective yawn.
The International Tennis Federation’s president, David Haggerty, fretted that withdrawing from China would “punish a billion people.” (Translation: punish the bank accounts of Big Tennis.) He insisted, of course, that the federation stands in support of women’s rights and blah, blah, blah. But sorry, Peng, tennis will go on.
The United States announced a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics. Australia and Britain joined in. But diplomats don’t compete and don’t draw global viewers. Athletes do.
A preferred tactic by oppressive governments to rehabilitate their tarnished images is to engage in “sportswashing” — sponsoring high-dollar events to distract the global viewing public from all that nasty human rights stuff. Just ask Saudi Arabia. The Guardian reports that the kingdom has spent at least $1.5 billion on big events like golf championships, a Formula One race, tennis tournaments and horse races to help people forget Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s role in the murder of Washington Post opinion writer Jamal Khashoggi.
Governments can try all they want to sportswash their image, but success depends on athletes wearing sunglasses to hide the dollar signs in their eyes.
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