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A convicted child rapist is no longer in the running for gold at the Paris Olympics.
Netherlands beach volleyball player Steven van de Velde and his partner Matthew Immers were eliminated 21-16, 21-16 in the Round of 16 on Sunday by the Brazilian duo of Evandro Oliveira and Arthur Lanci, to raucous applause.
Van de Velde pleaded guilty to raping a 12-year-old in 2014, when he was 19. He befriended the girl on Facebook and flew to meet her in England, where he got her drunk on Bailey’s Irish Cream, had several sexual encounters with her and advised her to get a morning-after pill. He ended up serving 13 months of a four-year sentence after being transferred back to the Netherlands, where statutory rape laws are much more lenient.
The judge on the case called van de Velde’s Olympic hopes a “shattered dream” at the time of his conviction in 2016, but he was back competing internationally in 2018 and in the field four years later for Paris. His past didn’t go unnoticed, with victim advocacy groups calling for his withdrawal and fans frequently jeering him.
Van de Velde and Immers made it out of pool play with a 2-1 record, but Oliveira and Lanci wound up being a different challenge. The Brazilian pair overwhelmed their opponent on their serve, and were stronger at the net as well.
You can see a sample of the environment here, with the crowd loudly booing as van de Velde prepares to serve the ball.
Le beach-volleyeur néerlandais Steven van de Velde a été hué hier soir pendant le match de 8e de finale contre le Brésil. Il a été condamné pour viol d’une enfant de 12 ans en 2016.#jo #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/mQdMo2GClM
— Ingrid Zerbib (@ingridzerbib) August 5, 2024
Van de Velde’s hope, and every Olympic organizer’s fear, for him to reach the podium is now done, but he will still get to call himself an Olympian. Per the Associated Press, he did not walk through the mixed zone with reporter after any match, something that is typically required of all Olympians, but his partner said he needs the mental rest:
“If I can speak for him, after the match we lost, we were disappointed,” Immers said. “But we said to each other: ‘Look what we did together. Look how hard we fought with all the attention.’ We stayed together. We cried together off the field and said, ‘OK, let’s just enjoy this moment.’ And we did that. So I’m happy we did it that way.”
Oliveira and Lanci will advance to face the Swedish pair of David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig in the quarterfinals.
Source Agencies
