IOC claims it played no role in the nomination of a convicted rapist for the Dutch Olympic team

BERLIN (dpa) – The Olympic governing body has declared that it had no influence on the Dutch Volleyball Association’s decision to nominate a convicted rapist for the games in Paris. An advocacy group for women in sport criticized this selection.

Steven van de Velde was sentenced to four years in prison in the UK in 2016 after raping a 12-year-old girl two years earlier, when he was 19.

After serving part of his sentence there, he was transferred to the Netherlands and his sentence was adjusted to Dutch law. Van de Velde has been competing in beach volleyball again since 2017 and was named to the Dutch Olympic team last month.

“The nomination of individual team members after qualification on the field is the sole responsibility of the respective National Olympic Committee,” said a spokesman for the International Olympic Committee.

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Neither Van de Velde nor the beach volleyball coach of the Dutch Olympic team were immediately available for comment.

The selection of athletes for the Olympic Games is the responsibility of the individual national NOCs, but the IOC sends individual invitations after the national nominations.

The IOC has the right not to issue or to withdraw invitations before or during the Olympic Games.

It refused to extend invitations to the Paris Games to some Russian and Belarusian athletes who had met the qualification criteria in a vetting process related to their active support of the war in Ukraine or their contractual ties to the Russian military.

Some athletes and human rights groups opposed Van de Velde’s nomination.

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