No deadline for Wang Meng's suspension

CHANGCHUN, Jilin province - It hangs a mystery when China's four-time Winter Olympic champion Wang Meng, who is serving a domestic suspension for a drunken brawl with the manager, could return to the national short-track speed skating team, as a senior sports official declined on Thursday to give a deadline for her ban.

Wang was expelled from the national team last August for punching team manager Wang Chunlu after breaking the team curfew and coming back to the team base drunk. And the 27-year-old has been banned from all kinds of domestic competitions including the ongoing National Winter Games.

Xiao Tian, vice minister of China's State General Administration of Sports, told reporters Thursday that Wang could be called up to the national team only if she has learned lessons from the incident.

"Wang shall not be recalled until she proves that she has remedied her fault," said Xiao, who's supervising the 12th National Winter Games in Northeast China's Jilin province.

"A youngster sometimes make mistakes, but it makes sense that a person has to pay for what he/she does wrong, no matter who he/she is," he added.

Wang was reported to have gone to the United States two weeks ago for a treatment on her hand injury.

With the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games two years away, China's short-track speed skating team faces big challenges in the world championships in March in Shanghai.

But, according to Zhao Yinggang, director of China's winter sports administrative center, the door is not totally shut for Wang ahead of the worlds.

Wang is the most decorated Chinese Winter Olympic athlete ever with four gold medals, a silver and a bronze.