Dutch beach volleyball player Steven van de Velde, who was convicted of raping a 12-year-old British girl in 2016, has said he considered quitting the Olympics amid the controversy around his participation.
When asked by Dutch national broadcaster NOS if he had thought about quitting Paris 2024, Van de Velde said he thought about it both before and during the Games, but he ultimately decided that he would compete.
“I thought, ‘I don’t want that. I’m not going to give others the power to decide they can bully me away or get rid of me,’” he said in Dutch.
The crowd booed Van de Velde throughout his matches, before he and his partner Matthew Immers crashed out during the quarter-finals, where they lost to Brazil in straight sets.
Van de Velde said there was a “very good chance” his and Immers’ play was affected by the crowd reactions.
The beach volleyball player served 12 months in Dutch prison after his 2016 rape conviction.
He met the victim on Facebook, then travelled from Amsterdam to the UK in August 2014 and raped the child at her home in Milton Keynes while her mother was out.
Van de Velde was allowed to resume his volleyball career and has completed in international tournaments since 2018 after demonstrating “self-insight and reflection,” the Dutch Olympic Committee (NOC) said.
Although victims, advocates, lawmakers and fans called for him to be banned from the Olympics, the IOC said it was powerless to stop the Netherlands from sending an athlete who qualified in the usual way.
In a statement posted on the Netherlands Volleyball Federation website before the Olympics Games, Van de Velde said of his history: “I cannot reverse it, so I will have to bear the consequences. It has been the biggest mistake of my life.”
Van de Velde, who is now married and has a young son, added: “I’m not the person I was ten years ago.”
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