Xie Ke, husband of Jeon Ji-hee, who dedicated 10 years as a member of the South Korean table tennis national team, has been banned from participating for 10 years.
On Nov. 11 (local time), the Hong Kong South China Morning Post reported that the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) found Xie Ke, a coach and former Chinese player, guilty of seriously violating the ITTF anti-harassment policy and procedures. As a result, the ITTF imposed a 10-year ban on Xie.
Xie, who reached a world ranking of 129 as a player, denied the allegations of sexual assault. He criticized the ruling, stating that "it seriously distorted the facts and damaged my reputation." According to investigation documents from the ITTF, on Jan. 1, 2021, Xie invited four participants of a training camp to his hotel room and continued celebrating the New Year festivities that had started the day before.
It is reported that one of the four was a player belonging to the South Korean and Hong Kong table tennis teams. The victim noted that when the other players were trying to leave the room, she also wanted to go, but Xie continued to persuade her to stay.
After the victim returned to her room, Xie used WeChat (a Chinese messenger app) to ask where her room was and said he wanted to talk. The victim provided her room number but repeatedly messaged Xie that she was tired and would go to sleep.
The ITTF later claimed that Xie knocked on her door and forcibly entered to commit sexual assault. According to WeChat messages, the incident occurred after 3:30 a.m. The ITTF's ban on Xie took effect on Dec. 17 of last year but was officially announced on March 6 of this year.
On March 9, Xie released a statement refuting the ITTF's claims. He said that at the time of the incident, "an American table tennis player asked me to coach him," adding, "The player suggested continuing the conversation in his room, and it didn't take even a minute." He also stated, "This ruling is a serious distortion of the facts" and emphasized that there was no physical evidence or police records of the incident that the ITTF claimed, and it was merely a unilateral statement from the alleged victim.
In response, the ITTF stated that "the disciplinary committee attempted to involve Xie in several disciplinary procedures, but he did not respond to any requests and did not participate in the hearings," adding, "He did not officially submit anything to defend himself."