Editor’s notice: Comply with the most recent Olympics stay outcomes, medal rely and updates for Sunday, July 28.
PARIS – On a flawlessly sunny Sunday morning on the base of the Eiffel Tower, a convicted little one rapist performed and misplaced an Olympic seashore volleyball match.
Such a fantastic setting for such an unsightly sentence.
Those that don’t know the story of Dutch seashore volleyballer Steven van de Velde, I envy you. It’s the nastiest storyline going regarding the proud athletes of those Paris Video games, and it may have been prevented had somebody stood up for what’s proper. However nobody has, all the way in which from the Netherlands to the Worldwide Olympic Committee.
In 2014, van de Velde, then 19, traveled to Milton Keynes, England to see a 12-year-old woman he’d met on-line. In accordance with the MK Citizen’s 2016 account of the trial, van de Velde knew her age, took her virginity and authorities had been notified when she sought the morning-after tablet.
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Repeat: She was 12 years previous.
It was revealed in courtroom, too, that she had “since self-harmed and brought an overdose.”
Van de Velde hasn’t denied what occurred. In a 2018 interview with Dutch NOS Sport, he admitted his actions and expressed remorse for “the largest mistake of my life.”
“I made that snap choice,” he mentioned. “I booked that ticket within the morning and flew out within the afternoon. Yeah, and as you already know, issues occurred. We had intercourse, and I got here again the subsequent day. I can not get round it. I may maintain blaming myself 100 thousand instances for it taking place and the way it occurred.”
As van de Velde was sentenced in England to 4 years in jail (he served a couple of 12 months attributable to differing legal guidelines within the Netherlands), the decide Francis Sheridan advised him (per the MK Citizen), “Previous to coming to this nation you had been coaching as a possible Olympian. Your hopes of representing your nation now lie as a shattered dream.”
You’d have thought so, huh?
Not solely is van de Velde being allowed to compete in Paris. He’s being given particular therapy. He’s not staying with different athletes or his teammate Matthew Immers within the Olympic Village. He’s permitted to skip necessary media availability and dodge the interview space after his matches.
He subsequently missed out on the uncomfortable questions that Immers confronted after Sunday’s loss to Italy’s Adrian Carambula and Alex Ranghieri.
“He isn’t right here as a result of he simply needs to relaxation his thoughts and give attention to the sport,” Immers mentioned.
“The primary purpose is we wish to discuss sports activities, particularly him,” mentioned John Van Vliet, press officer for the Netherlands workforce. “We’re very a lot conscious that if we convey out Steven right here, it will not (be) about his sport and his efficiency. … It is one thing that should not be introduced up by sports activities in a match which he certified for.”
Should not be introduced up by sports activities?
Then he shouldn’t be competing right here. Interval.
It is being introduced up always. Sunday’s victorious Italian opponents even stormed off from a post-match interview session, scolding reporters for asking solely concerning the controversy.
That Dutch officers really feel compelled to guard van de Velde and conceal him away from the world’s best sporting spectacle demonstrates why he shouldn’t have been allowed to be part of it within the first place.
However nobody ever made that call. His inclusion was the results of the Netherlands Volleyball Federation (Nevobo) backing him publicly. So did the nation’s Olympics management, and IOC spokesperson Mark Adams deferred to that assist Saturday when requested about van de Velde’s participation.
“I’m grateful to the Dutch Volleyball Federation,” van de Velde mentioned in an earlier assertion launched by Nevobo, “as a result of they provided me, with clear situations and agreements, a future on this lovely sport once more. However I additionally suppose again to {the teenager} I used to be, who was insecure, not prepared for a life as a prime class athlete and sad inside, as a result of I did not know who I used to be and what I needed.”
The entire scenario is disgusting.
Anybody who’d prefer to view an Olympics as a unifying and inspirational pressure on our sophisticated planet – and they’re – needs to be appalled at van de Velde’s inclusion. And appalled, too, at how these in van de Velde’s orbit maintain dealing with the worldwide controversy it has ignited, placing athletics skill over moral accountability on the one place it needs to be essentially the most paramount.
Possibly one thing was misplaced within the transition to English, however I heard lots of concern for van de Velde from Immers and Van Vliet on Sunday. Not a lot regard, although, for his sufferer or for advocates of sexual assualt victims who’ve been rightfully bothered by his presence in these Olympics.
Immers mentioned he was “dissatisfied” at how “massive” the story has change into. Requested if he was dissatisfied, although, by van de Velde’s motion, he replied, “No, under no circumstances. I don’t wish to discuss (these) actions at this level and all the large consideration. I’ve identified the man for 3 years, 4 years now, and we’ve performed each match, and proper now they make a very massive dialogue of it.”
In clarifying that remark, Van Vliet mentioned, “(Immers) has been enjoying with (van de Velde) many, many tournaments the final three years. It has by no means been a difficulty.”
It’s not obscure why it is a difficulty now, although. The Olympics isn’t like these many, many tournaments, nor ought to it’s in comparison with them.
I am all for second probabilities, however any try and coerce sympathy for van de Velde or clarify his actions as some youthful mistake ought to stop proper right here:
She was 12 years previous.
Nothing else issues.
Besides, evidently, the Dutch profitable a seashore volleyball match. On Sunday morning, they didn’t even try this.
They misplaced. And the Paris Olympics did, too.
Attain sports activities columnist Gentry Estes at [email protected] and on the X platform (previously generally known as Twitter) @Gentry_Estes.