Dutch Olympian is Convicted Child Rapist 2024
Beach volleyball player Steven van de Velde will compete in the Paris Olympics. He won’t stay in the athletes village or talk to reporters, says the Dutch Olympic Committee. This is because he served prison time for raping a 12-year-old girl in 2014, reports the Athletic.
The crime: In 2016, van de Velde confessed to traveling to the UK to meet and rape the child he had been talking to online. He was caught after telling the girl to get the morning-after pill, and the clinic notified authorities because of her age. Van de Velde was sentenced to four years and served 13 months after being transferred back to the Netherlands. He is registered as a sex offender in the UK.
Aftermath: A year after his release, van de Velde said he had been “figuring things out” when the assault happened. He was 19 at the time. “I was sort of lost and now I have so much more life experience,” he said. He continued playing volleyball internationally and married in 2022. He and his wife, German volleyball player Kim van de Velde, have a 2-year-old son.
Van de Velde now: “I cannot reverse it, so I will have to bear the consequences. It has been the biggest mistake of my life,” he said last month, according to the AP.
Dutch Olympic Committee: The group says van de Velde has gone through an “extensive rehabilitation program” and is confident he won’t reoffend, reports the Athletic. “He is proving to be an exemplary professional and human being and there has been no reason to doubt him since his return,” says Michel Everaert, general director of the Dutch Volleyball Federation.
IOC probe? The Guardian reports that there are calls for an investigation, with the head of Rape Crisis England & Wales calling van de Velde’s inclusion “irresponsible.” “If you can rape a child and still compete in the Olympics, despite all athletes signing a declaration promising to be a role model, that is just shocking,” says Ciara Bergman. A petition with more than 80,000 signatures is circulating, urging the IOC to not allow sex offenders to compete.
