The public who went this Sunday to the Olympic beach volleyball headquarters at the Eiffel Tower cheated on Dutch player Steven van de Velde, who was convicted of rape before. His delegation allowed the athlete’s participation in the Olympic Games, saying that “the past is the past.”
Van de Velde was sentenced to four years in prison in the United Kingdom in 2016 after raping a 12-year-old girl two years earlier, when he was 19.
He spent 13 months in prison – a year in the UK and a month in the Netherlands – before being released, after what he did was reclassified under Dutch law as a lesser offense of “obscene acts” and his sentence is reduced.
In his debut match he was booed several times, although there was also applause.
Van de Velde’s teammate Matthew Immers shrugged off the criticism. “What is past is past. He had his punishment and now he is very kind. For me it is an example that he has grown and learned a lot from it,” Immers said to the press.
Van de Velde and Immers lost 22-20, 19-21, 15-13 to Italians Alex Ranghieri and Adrian Ignacio Carambula Raurich in their men’s Group B match.
The International Olympic Committee said it accepts the explanations provided by the Dutch Olympic team for Van de Velde’s participation in the Games.
Source: La Verdad
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