Convicted of rape, Dutch beach volleyball player gets mixed reaction on Olympics debut

New Delhi: A Dutch beach volleyball player received a combination of boos and applauds when he made his Olympics debut as part of the Netherlands beach volleyball team on Sunday.

Steven van de Velde was held guilty and served time in prison for raping a 12-year-old girl. The 29-year-old served four years in jail after being convicted in 2016.

When he walked onto the court with teammate Matthew Immers, the Dutch fans cheered and applaud the players but when van de Velde was introduced individually by the presenter before the match, there were loud boos.

Even when he was in action there were boos ringing in from the crowd. Despite his past, the player was picked the Dutch national Olympic committee for Paris 2024 though he hasn’t been allowed to stay in the Games Village.

He will remain separated from his team-mates and barred from speaking to the media but received a warm embrace from Sommers before the beginning of their game.

Van de Velde has played beach volleyball since 2017. He and Immers were beaten 22-20 19-21 15-13 by Italy’s Alex Ranghieri and Adrian Ignacio Carambula Raurich in their men’s Pool B match.

Immers later said he was disappointed that so much of attention was on van der Velde’s past even after they fought hard to qualify for Paris.

“I know the guy for two, three years together and we played every tournament. What is in the past is in the past, and he had his punishment,” he said, as quoted by AFP.

“For me that’s a big example that you grew, you learned a lot from it. What happened in the past… it’s not good of course. But right now we are trying to enjoy and go to the next round.”

The Netherlands Olympics team said that van der Velde has served his time for wrong doing and got selected for his performances.

“It’s something that shouldn’t be brought up through sports in a tournament that he qualified for,” John van Vliet said, as quoted by AFP.

“The general matter of sex convictions or sex-related crime is a much bigger issue than sport but in his case we have a person who has been convicted, who did his sentence and did everything afterwards that he can do to compete again.”

The International Olympic Committee was satisfied with the explanation of the Dutch team to included him as he has been in rehabilitation for a long time for a crime that happened a long time ago.

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