A Dutch beach volleyball player who was convicted in 2016 of having sex with a 12-year-old girl in England will make his Olympic debut on Sunday at the Eiffel Tower Stadium. Steven van de Velde and teammate Matthew Immers will play Italy on Sunday. Rape victim advocates and some Olympic officials said he should have been left home.
FILE - Steven van de Velde of the Netherlands competes during the CEV Beach Volley Nations Cup Vienna 2022 men’s semifinal game against Austria at the Red Bull Beach Arena in Vienna, Austria, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2022. Van de Velde, convicted and imprisoned eight years ago for raping an underage girl in England has qualified for the Paris Olympics. Sweden and Australia compete in men’s beach volleyball at Eiffel Tower Stadium at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France.
Now 29, Van de Velde was sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted of raping a girl he reportedly got to know online. He served 13 months in prison. The International Volleyball Federation said it was powerless to stop the Netherlands from sending Van de Velde to Paris after he qualified in the usual way. Van de Velde, who is not staying at the athlete’s village and has not been available to the media, said after earning his Olympic berth that the incident was “the biggest mistake of my life.”
“The first thing I’d like to say is that we don’t condone his actions,” Australia’s Mark Nicolaidis said. “But, apart from that, I’ve just finished the game, and that that’s kind of all that’s on my mind at the moment.”“We’re just focused on doing our best against the teams in front of us,” American Miles Partain said after his Olympic debut on Saturday.
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