Convicted child rapist qualifies for Olympic team
A convicted child rapist has qualified to represent The Netherlands at the upcoming 2024 Olympics.
Steven van de Velde will head to Paris in July to represent the country in beach volleyball, much to the dismay of many.
Van de Velde's selection has caused outrage given he pleaded guilty to three counts of rape in 2014 and was sentenced to four years in jail.
He was convicted in 2016 and only served one year behind bars.
The athlete, now 29, admitted to meeting the then 12-year-old on Facebook before travelling to England from Amsterdam to meet her when he raped her, after being aware of her age.
At the 2016 sentencing, the judge labelled Van de Velde's Olympic aspirations a "shattered dream" due to the conviction.
However, the Netherlands Olympic Committee (NOC) have given him another chance, despite the fact that the British Olympic Committee is allegedly uncomfortable with the Van de Velde selection.
"Since 2018, Steven van de Velde has been participating in international beach volleyball tournaments again following an intensive, professionally supervised trajectory," the NOC said in a statement.
Despite the unusual selection, the International Olympic Committee allows each nation to select its own athletes and does not veto any picks.
Following his release from jail, Van de Velde said in an interview in 2018, "I made that choice in my life when I wasn't ready, I was a teenager still figuring things out."
"I was sort of lost and now I have so much more life experience, aside from just being incarcerated. Any form of help would have been very very helpful, maybe that's what I would have told myself, seek help."
Image credits: Xinhua News Agency/Shutterstock Editorial