A Dutch volleyball player allowed to compete at the Olympics despite raping a 12-year-old British girl has chosen to stay away from the athletes’ village in Paris.
Steven van de Velde, sentenced in 2016 to four years in prison, is said to have sought alternative accommodation while he competes as he attempts to keep a low profile.
Despite his criminal record in the UK, Van de Velde arrived in Paris with the “full support” of the Dutch Volleyball Federation.
German outlet Bild had been first to report he was going against athlete tradition by staying away from the village. His partner in the beach volleyball team, Matthew Immers, is understood to be staying in the village, however, and will front media duties after matches.
Van de Velde qualified for the Olympics, which begin next week, eight years after being told by a judge that his hopes of representing the Netherlands was a “shattered dream”.
In March 2016, he admitted three counts of rape against a child he had met on Facebook. He had flown from the Netherlands to the UK in August 2014, when he was 19, to meet his victim.
Judge Francis Sheridan told him: “Prior to coming to this country you were training as a potential Olympian. Your hopes of representing your country now lie as a shattered dream.”
Yet Van de Velde, who was released after serving just 12 months at a Dutch prison, was allowed to rehabilitate his Olympic career, last month sealing his spot in the national pair at the Paris Games alongside Immers.
On sentencing at Aylesbury Crown Court after being extradited from his homeland, his own defence lawyer, Linda Strudwick, said of the verdict: “The headlines say it all: ‘A sex monster.’ It’s plainly a career end for him.”
It has proved anything but, with Van de Velde, now 29, re-establishing his credentials in beach volleyball to such an extent that he and Immers are the 11th-ranked team in the world.
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