Steven van de Velde will represent the Netherlands at the Olympics next month, eight years after being convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl.
In 2014, less than a week before his 19th birthday, Van de Velde flew to England to meet the victim, where he raped her after giving her alcohol. He first met the victim on Facebook.
Two years later he was sentenced to four years in prison, but was released just a year later. He is a registered sex offender in the UK for the rest of his life, and the victim has since self-harmed and once overdosed.
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Steven van de Velde saves the ball during the men's singles final match between Evandro Goncalves Oliveira Jr. and Arthur Diego Mariano Lanci of Brazil and van de Velde and Matthew Immers of the Netherlands at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Elite 16 2024 in Brasilia, Brazil, May 5, 2024. (Lucio Tavora/Xinhua via Getty Images)
“I can't reverse it, so I will have to bear the consequences. It has been the biggest mistake of my life,” he said in 2018.
She returned to competing in international competitions shortly after her release from prison in 2017. Now, the Dutch volleyball federation, Nevobo, says van de Velde “fulfills all qualification requirements for the Olympic Games and is therefore part of the team.”
“He was convicted under English law at the time and has now served his sentence. Since then, we have been in constant contact with Steven, who has now fully reintegrated into the Dutch volleyball community,” Nevobo said in a statement.
“He is proving to be an exemplary professional and human being, and there is no reason to doubt him since his return. We fully support him and his participation in Paris, which he and [teammate] Matthew [Immers] They have won.”
Matthew Immers and Steven van de Velde of the Netherlands during the 2023 Tlaxcala World Beach Championships at the Plaza de Toros de Tlaxcala on October 12, 2023, in Tlaxcala, Mexico. (Pablo Morano/BSR Agency/Getty Images)
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“Since 2017, Steven van de Velde, after an intensive professionally supervised process with, among others, the probation service, has once again participated in international beach volleyball tournaments,” said the Dutch Olympic Committee NOC*NSF in its own statement. .
“At that time, the considerations and conditions for the return to high-level sports were determined by both Nevobo and NOC*NSF in part on the basis of the NOC*NSF Historical Integrity Guide, which states, among other things , the conditions under which athletes in high-level sports can return after a conviction.”
It should be noted that the Dutch will not be sending several golfers who qualified for Paris after their Olympic committee said their world rankings suggested they would not have a realistic chance of competing.
The Dutch Golf Federation said in a statement Tuesday that it presented “extensive arguments and data” at a June 14 meeting with the Dutch committee, hoping to show unique differences in golf compared to other sports.
Steven van de Velde of the Netherlands during the 2023 Tlaxcala World Beach Championships at Tlaxcala Plaza de Toros on October 11, 2023, in Tlaxcala, Mexico. (Pablo Morano/BSR Agency/Getty Images)
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“According to them, it has not been proven that there is a reasonable possibility of being among the top eight during the Olympic Games,” the statement said.
The Netherlands' best result in men's beach volleyball at the Olympics was a bronze medal in 2016.
Paulina Dedaj of Fox News contributed to this report.
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