Sorry, I just don’t trust the IOC

The IOC continues to happily eat whatever the Chinese government is willing to shovel to it. Yesterday IOC President Thomas Bach allegedly had a 30-minute video confab with Peng Shuai, in the hopes that would quell all the questions and fears about her whereabouts and well-being after she went off the grid after accusing a former Chinese official of sexual assault.

Of course, on the call with Bach and Shuai was a Chinese sports official. The only evidence of the call was a still that Bach released and his word.

It would not be a coincidence that if the Chinese government were trying to pull the wool over the world’s eyes, it would use the IOC to do it. Because while the WTA has been vociferous in its cries for investigations and requests to speak with Peng, the IOC basically stuck its fingers in its ears and loudly yelled, “LALALALALALA!” Because, as we can’t stress enough, we’re just about three months from the Winter Games in Beijing.

So the IOC is only happy to roll over and have its belly tickled by China. It’s good to see Peng, and the overriding hope is that she is indeed safe and happy and just taking some time for herself. But we know that the IOC would knife a puppy for a nickel, so merely having them just tell us that Peng is fine because China said so isn’t enough. The WTA certainly doesn’t think so.

In a utopia, an organization like the IOC is exactly the kind of behemoth that could make China sweat. Threaten to take the Games away and/or cancel them, and it would look bad for a country that is desperate to only show one side of its face to the world. Y’know, if it weren’t beholden to money like Pavlov’s dog.

But, as has been made violently clear, we don’t live in that utopia. I want what the IOC is peddling to be the truth, I really do. But been around this block too many times to buy in just yet. Just about the only organization less trustworthy than the Chinese government is the IOC. They actually make a perfect couple.