Editorial: Convicted child rapists should not be allowed to compete in the Olympics

Steven van de Velde of the Netherlands during the Men's Beach Volleyball Pool B match between Norway and Netherlands on Day 7 of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Eiffel Tower Stadium. Photo / DeFodi Images via Getty Images

EDITORIAL

There are countless infractions that can lead to an athlete losing their Olympic spot.

But, as we learned last week, raping a 12-year-old isn’t one of them.

While many of Steven van de Velde’s competitors would have spent the last decade focused almost exclusively on beach volleyball, the Dutch athlete spent a decent chunk of that time in jail after being convicted of sexually abusing a young girl.

Although child rape convictions tend to speak for themselves, the actions leading up to his offending are worth further inspection.

Van de Velde met the child on Facebook and knew her age before he flew to the United Kingdom and raped her.

The BBC reported that he’d flown EzyJet and had booked a return ticket for later that day. He raped her while her mother was out.

The Dutch Olympic team have also admitted to “protecting a convicted child rapist” by allowing him to skip media interviews, which he was granted a special dispensation to do.

“In his case, we’ve got a person who has been convicted, who did his sentence, who did everything afterwards that he can do to be able to compete again,” Dutch press attache John van Vliet said.

“We are very much aware that if we bring Steven out here, it won’t be about sport or his performance.”

The athlete’s situation isn’t as unique as it sounds.

A former New Zealand representative athlete has been allowed to compete again locally despite pleading guilty to having sexual connection with a 15-year-old and intentionally exposing her to indecent material.

He was granted name suppression and a discharge without conviction, with the judge citing the sportsman’s career, his access to training facilities, and the impact sexual offending charges had on him as mitigating features in his decision last year.

All Blacks star Sevu Reece was also given a discharge without conviction in 2018 over a domestic violence incident that left his partner bloodied and bruised.

The judge in that case said a conviction would have ended the player’s Irish contract – and that would have been out of all proportion to the gravity of the offending.

Sportsmen globally are pushed onto pedestals of society’s making as if their talents immunise them against failures or undertaking abuse.

Having served his time, albeit reportedly only 13 months of a four-year sentence, we agree that van de Velde should have the right to rejoin the community.

But the right to rehabilitation for raping a child should not extend to participating in the most revered event in the sporting world.