Dutch beach volleyball player Steven van de Velde, who was convicted of raping a 12-year-old British girl in 2016, said Tuesday that he considered quitting the Paris Olympics amid the controversy surrounding his participation.
Van de Velde and his partner Matthew Immers reached the quarterfinals in Paris, where they lost to Brazil in straight sets. The pair played four matches in the tournament and Van de Velde was repeatedly subjected to a stream of hoots and whistles.
Asked in an interview with Dutch national broadcaster NOS if he thought about quitting, Van de Velde said that he considered it both before and during the Olympics, but ultimately decided to 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 told NOS in Dutch.
Yeah, he should’ve done that. He was literally told by the judge at the time that his Olympic dreams were over and the fact that he was still welcomed into the Dutch Olympic team after this was all well known is a slap in the face to Dutch women and girls.
So, criticizing you for raping a child is “bullying” you? I don’t think the claimed rehabilitation happened. He should still be in jail.
Ah yes, the rapist doesn’t want others to have power over him. Who would have guessed. Fuck him and fuck the panel that decided he could ever join.
I guess I’m late to reading about this. As a 19 year old, he met a British 12 year old online, plied them with alcohol, raped them, pled guilty, and was punished for this.
What’s interesting is he was convicted in Britain, and then was sent to serve his sentence in the Netherlands. When he arrived, his sentence was reduced and the crime was changed because Dutch law didn’t recognise his crime as rape if force or violence wasn’t involved (they changed that this year).
Despite that I’m still astonished he was even considered to represent his country in this way. Even though the law and rules allowed it, surely common sense wouldn’t.
It is a travesty that he was allowed to represent the Netherlands. But these sports organisations always screeth about how they only care about the sports… worldcup in Qatar using stations built on the corpses of modern slaves, no problem. Bankrupting local economies while taking all profits, no problem. Criminal contestants, who cares.
Shame on the Dutch Olympic Committee!
You sure gave yourself the power over that twelve year old girl. Shit stain. He clearly has learned nothing, and holds no remorse.
