Convicted Child Rapist Athlete Booed at Olympics Beach Volleyball

A convicted child rapist and registered sex offender was booed by spectators as he competed in beach volleyball at the Olympic Games on Sunday.

Steven van de Velde, a Dutch beach volleyball player on a team ranked 10th in the world, was sentenced to four years in prison in 2016 after pleading guilty to raping a 12-year-old schoolgirl he met on Facebook.

Van de Velde was 19 in 2014 when he traveled from Amsterdam to England, drank Baileys Irish Cream Liqueur with the girl and raped her.

On Sunday, just eight years later and still listed on the UK's sex offenders registry, van de Velde stepped onto the special sand of the Olympic beach volleyball court in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower to represent the Netherlands in a first-round match against Italy. He was booed — and cheered — by the crowed when he was introduced.

He and his teammate, Matthew Immers, were defeated 2-1 by Italy and will play again against Chile on Wednesday.

“What's in the past is in the past," van de Veld's teammate Immers told reporters, according to Reuters. "He had his punishment and now he is really kind. For me it is an example that (he) grew and learnt a lot from it.”

The Netherlands team press officer John van Vliet also told Reuters, “It’s something that shouldn't be brought up through sports in a tournament that he qualified for... we have a person who has been convicted, who did his sentence and did everything afterwards that he can do to compete again.”

Van de Velde, now 29, was only caught because he hadn’t used birth control and told the girl to get a morning-after-pill from a family planning clinic, which notified her family and police because of her age.

After being extradited from the Netherlands, van de Velde pleaded guilty to three counts of raping a child.

The British judge admonished him: “Your hopes of representing your country now lie as a shattered dream.” His lawyer said: “He’s lost a stellar sporting career… it’s plainly a career end for him.”

Van de Velde served one year in a British prison before being transferred to the Netherlands, where he served another month and was released in 2017 because of more lenient Dutch underage sex laws.

Upon release from prison, van de Velde tried to defend himself. “Everyone wants to be liked, everyone wants to be respected, and with something like this on your record, it’s difficult,” he said in a Dutch TV interview. “I can’t reverse it, so I have to carry the consequences. It’s the biggest mistake of my life.”

In another newspaper interview, he said: “I have been branded as a sex monster, as a pedophile. That I am not—really not.”

A Dutch national champion, van de Velde has pursued a pro beach volleyball career and played in international tournaments since being freed. But his selection as an Olympian has been heavily criticized by survivor groups.

The Dutch Olympic Committee stood by its decision to include him on the team and explained that van de Velde would not live in the Olympic Village or speak with the media.

“Steven is NOT a peadophile [sic]; you really don’t think that the Dutch [Olympic Committee] would send someone to Paris who IS a real risk?” a Dutch Olympic Committee spokesman wrote in response to public criticism, according to The Guardian. “No, he isn’t a risk.”

“Van de Velde has fully engaged with all requirements and has met all the stringent risk assessment thresholds, checks and due diligence,” the Dutch Olympic Committee said in a separate statement. “Experts have stated that there is no risk of recidivism. Van de Velde has consistently remained transparent about the case which he refers to as the most significant misstep of his life. He deeply regrets the consequences of his actions for those involved. He has been open about the personal transformation he has undergone as a result.”

Van de Velde has been married to a German beach volleyball player since 2022 and they have a 2-year-old son.

“When van de Velde looks in the mirror now, he sees a mature and happy man, married and the father of a beautiful son,” the Dutch Volleyball Association said on its website.

A petition urging the International Olympic Committee to ban known sex offenders from competing has garnered nearly 81,000 signatures.

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The Brave Movement, a survivor-centered global movement to end childhood sexual violence, said in an open letter that the Dutch Olympic committee should remove him. “We believe that is the only appropriate action.”

“An athlete convicted of child sexual abuse, no matter in what country, should not be awarded the opportunity to compete in the Olympic Games,” Julie Ann Rivers-Cochran, executive director of The Army of Survivors, told The New York Times. “Raping a minor is not a ‘misstep’—it is a criminal violation that should exclude people from participation in the Olympic Games.”