Zhou Jihong, China's national diving team manager, echoed Li's point of view,
saying the SAC will not call back Tian.
"We don't have any plan to recall Tian to the national side right now," she
said.
"For breaking the the rules of SAC, it's clear that he is only a member of
Shaanxi provicial team and is not able to come back to the national team."
According to Zhou, Zhang Ting, Tian's coach as well as a leading official of
Shaanxi Sports Bureau, visited the SAC in January, but no substantial progress
has been made on the issue.
The bureau has been lobbying the SAC to recall Tian, who was appointed as its
senior official last September.
The 27-year-old Tian, the Olympic gold medallist in 10-metre platform in
Sydney Games in 2000 and the synchronized platform in Athens in 2004, has been
expelled from China's national team for taking too many commercial activities
and allegedly refused to come back to the team after the Athens Olympics.
After a convincing victory at the individual platform event at the Tenth
National Games in 2005, when he outclassed the Athens Olympic gold winner Hu
Jia, the voice of recalling Tian has becoming louder and louder among fans and
media who suspect there are personal run-ins between Tian and SAC.
"For sure there is no hatred between us and he is definitely not a victim or
somebody like that," Zhou said.
"As a high-profile athlete, he must put national duties above personal
interests but he did not do enough to behave himself and he had some bad
influences on society and on our team's preparations for the 2008 Olympics.
"We would not take him differently just because he is an Olympic champion."
Tian frequently joined in dozens of business endeavours, including product
endorsements and public appearances after the Athens Games.
That triggered tension between Tian and SAC who claimed part of these
business activities were not approved by relevant sports organizations.