- The 29-year-old was booed by fans at the Eiffel Tower Stadium on Friday.
- Steven van de Velde was previously convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl.
- Her participation in the volleyball competition at the Paris Olympics has been criticized
Convicted child rapist Steven van de Velde received a hostile reception again when he was loudly booed by the crowd during the Netherlands’ volleyball loss to Norway.
The 29-year-old is a convicted sex offender after previously raping a 12-year-old girl, but was controversially named to the Netherlands’ Olympic volleyball team.
Van de Velde was jailed for four years after flying from the Netherlands to the UK to meet the schoolgirl in August 2014 after the pair began chatting on Facebook.
The athlete, who was 19 and knew how young the girl was at the time, was sentenced in March 2016 to four years in prison after admitting three counts of rape. He was released in 2017 after serving just one year of his sentence.
On Friday, she received a frosty welcome as she stepped onto the court at the Eiffel Tower Stadium for her third volleyball match at the Paris Olympics.
Convicted child rapist Steven van de Velde received a hostile reception again during the Netherlands’ volleyball defeat
The 29-year-old man is a convicted sex offender after previously raping a 12-year-old girl.
Van de Velde was booed and jeered by fans at the Eiffel Tower Stadium on Friday night.
Van de Velde walked out alongside teammate Matthew Immers and was then booed and whistled by the crowd when his name was read out to the fans in attendance.
There were also more shouts and sounds of discontent when Van de Velde served in the 2-0 defeat against reigning Olympic volleyball champions Anders Mol and Christian Sorum.
Despite losing, however, Van de Velde’s Olympic journey will continue after reaching the round of 16 of the event having won just one of her three matches.
Van de Velde was previously told by a judge that his promising career was a “shattered dream” following his vile conviction, but against all odds and public outcry, he was included in the team for the Paris Games.
Dutch Olympic selectors have backed Van de Velde’s inclusion in their team
However, she will not be staying with other athletes in the Olympic Village after the British Olympic Association raised concerns about the matter with the IOC.
Dutch Olympic selectors have backed Van de Velde’s inclusion in their team, saying earlier that she had met all the necessary criteria to appear at the Games in the French capital.
“Since 2018, Steven van de Velde has returned to participating in international beach volleyball tournaments following an intensive and professionally supervised path,” a spokesperson told Mail Sport.
‘Meanwhile, Steven van de Velde has fulfilled all the qualification criteria for the Olympic Games and is therefore included in the group of athletes who were formally handed over on 4 July from the Dutch national federations to the NOC, which then becomes responsible for them during the Olympic Games.’