Convicted and questioned. Eight years ago, beach volleyball player Steven van de Velde was convicted of child rape.
Despite the scandal, the 29-year-old Dutchman has now made his Olympic Games debut in front of the Eiffel Tower.
He has served his sentence, says teammate Matthew Immers.
Beach volleyball is one of the major attractions at the Olympic Games in Paris. The players have been given a prime spot right in front of the Eiffel Tower, where a temporary arena has been built on the Champ de Mars field.
But the Olympic sport has also sparked a debate that the organizers would have liked to avoid.
This is a discussion that has spread here, says a journalist from Le Parisien.
"The biggest mistake of my life"
She, like other media on the press stand, has come here not so much for the sake of beach volleyball, but to monitor 29-year-old Steven van de Velde, who was convicted in 2016 of raping a 12-year-old girl.
I can't undo it, so I have to take the consequences. It's the biggest mistake of my life, said van de Velde in an interview with the Dutch TV channel NOS in 2018.
It was 2014 when he, as a 19-year-old, came into contact with the girl on Facebook, according to The Telegraph. He flew to the UK to meet her and confessed to three counts of child rape in 2016. The Dutchman was sentenced to four years in prison for child rape.
If an athlete or anyone else in our team had received that sentence, they would not be allowed to participate, says Anna Meares, head of the Australian delegation.
Van de Velde seemed relatively unaffected by the attention during the game, the audience reacted little, apart from some booing. The game went on.
"He has served his sentence"
After the match, teammate Matthew Immers came to the mixed zone for interviews, and everything revolved around the scandal.
I'm very disappointed that it happened and that it's become so big, says Immers to a cluster of journalists.
Because we've worked incredibly hard for two years to qualify for this and we've talked about it, and said we're going to enjoy the Olympic Games.
Van de Velde himself did not come to the interview zone.
He's not here just because he wants to rest, he wants to focus on the game, said Immers.
A journalist from The Times blurted out: You understand that it was a 12-year-old girl? Another asked what kind of role model van de Velde is for others.
I think he's a good role model the way he's acting now, I appreciate playing with him. What has happened has happened. He has served his sentence, says Immers.
The match then? It was even all the way to the third set, but there the Italians won 15–13. The next match for the Netherlands is on Wednesday.
