Olympian convicted of child rape is loudly booed at her Paris debut

Warning: This article contains a discussion of rape that some readers may find disturbing.

A convicted child rapist who was allowed to play for his country at this year’s Summer Olympics was greeted with thunderous boos from the audience.

In 2014, Steven van de Velde, then 19, traveled from his home country, the Netherlands, to the United Kingdom to meet a 12-year-old girl from Milton Keynes, a city north of London, whom he had met on Facebook.

He raped the teenager in Milton Keynes.

He was sentenced to four years in prison in 2016 after admitting three counts of rape of a child, but after serving part of his sentence in the UK, he was transferred to a prison in the Netherlands.

His sentence was reviewed and he was released after only 12 months in prison.

Despite raping a child, the 29-year-old beach volleyball player was granted permission to represent his country at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris and made his first court appearance this afternoon.

Child molester Steven van de Velde played his first Olympic game and was booed by the crowd. (Morano/BSR Agency/Getty Images)

He left the stadium with his partner Matthew Immers when they played against Italy in the stadium in front of the Eiffel Tower and lost – the game ended 2-1 for the Italians.

A petition has been created on Change.org with the aim of disqualifying the Olympic participant and has already collected over 95,000 signatures.

The Olympic Committee has nevertheless allowed van de Velde to continue playing. He is scheduled to play in the Dutch match against Chile on Wednesday and again against Norway on Friday.

Before the tournament, the National Olympic Committee of the Netherlands issued a statement shortly after its decision to select a child molester to represent the country.

Van de Velde, now 29, was sentenced to four years in a Dutch prison in 2016 after admitting three counts of rape of a child. (Pablo Morano/BSR Agency/Getty Images)

It states: “Since 2017, Steven van de Velde has been taking part in international beach volleyball tournaments again – after an intensive, professionally supervised process, including with the probation service.

“The considerations and conditions for a return to elite sport were determined at the time by both Nevobo and the NOC*NSF (National Olympic Committee) partly on the basis of the NOC*NSF (National Olympic Committee) Integrity History Guideline, which, among other things, sets out the conditions under which athletes can return to elite sport after a conviction.

“Van de Velde now meets all the qualification requirements for the Olympic Games and is therefore part of the team.”

If you are experiencing any of the issues described in this article, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.HOPE (4673), which is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, or you can chat online at online.rainn.org.