Wang Meng Kicked Off Chinese National Speed Skating Team
Following a drunken brawl with her team manager, China’s most decorated Winter Olympics athlete, Wang Meng, has been expelled from the national speed skating team.
“Wang Meng is expelled from the national team and is banned from international competitions as her conduct has violated the team’s disciplines and jeopardized the sport’s image,” said a statement from China’s General Administration of Sport, state media reported.
The statement reports that 26-year-old Meng, along with five of her teammates, went out drinking and failed to return to the team hotel before curfew. When confronted by her team manager, Wang Chunlu, Meng punched her.
Meng, a four-time Olympic gold medalist, was immediately suspended following the incident, which happened back on July 24th during a summer training camp in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao.
In addition to booting Meng, the sports administration also expelled male speed skater Liu Xianwei for his role in the incident.
The other four squad members – Zhou Yang, Liu Qiuhong, Han Jialiang and Liang Wenhao – were permitted to continue training with the national team, but were told to write confessions regarding the brawl.
According to Xinhua, the official press agency of the government of the People’s Republic of China, this isn’t the first time that Wang has landed herself in trouble.
Back in 2007 the star was suspended from her national team for six months after criticizing her coach’s tactics at the Asian Winter Games.
Then, in June of this year, Wang and her team-mates reportedly clashed with security guards who accused them of making too much noise during a night out in the south-western Chinese city of Lijiang.
That incident led to the 10 pm curfew being imposed during last month’s summer training camp.
