The Dutch deserve a backlash after allowing Steven van de Velde to compete in the Olympics

PARIS — On Friday night, IOC President Thomas Bach left his sheltered seat at the opening ceremony, joined spectators in the rain (even though a subordinate held an umbrella over his head) and told a worldwide audience what he wanted viewers to hear:

“We all respect the same rules and each other. We all belong in our Olympic world.”

This may be true (for the most part) for games and sports. But in a broader sense, it is not remotely true. A sporting event involving participants from more than 200 countries also involves more than 200 laws and more than 200 cultural norms. Harmless acts in America are crimes in some other countries; transgressions we find heinous are considered misdemeanors by others.

This mainly explains why Steven van de Velde is here at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, competing for the Netherlands in beach volleyball.

In 2014, when van de Velde was 19, he flew to England to meet a 12-year-old girl he knew was 12 and raped her. To be clear, he was not accused of rape; he was tried, convicted and sentenced to 13 months in prison. He confessed to his crime. The facts of the case are indisputable, but one word in this paragraph is.

In England he was found guilty of rape.

In the Netherlands he was guilty of fornication.

This is not a question of semantics. Rather, it reflects Dutch laws on sexual assault.

A new, long overdue Law on sexual crimes passed In the Netherlands, this was decided this month by Dutch Justice and Security Minister Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius. “With this law, we are setting a clear standard: sex should always be consensual and equal. Someone is acting criminally if they know – or should have known – that the other person does not want to do something, but continues anyway,” said Yeşilgöz-Zegerius.

But at the time when van de Velde committed his crime, Dutch Criminal Code defined rape only as forcing sex by an act of violence or other action, or by the threat of violence or threat of another action. Instead of requiring mutual consent, the law defined all sex as legal unless there was violence or threat of violence.

If convicted of rape under this standard, the maximum penalty was 12 years in prison.

Sexual penetration of a person who was unconscious, unable to say no, or otherwise unable to defend themselves was considered a less serious crime, with a maximum sentence of eight years in prison.

The maximum sentence for raping a child between the ages of 12 and 16 was eight years. It was illegal, but was not explicitly defined as rape in the law.

The maximum sentence for raping a child under 12 years was 12 years imprisonment. This was also not explicitly defined as rape.

The maximum penalty for sexually abusing your own child, a foster child or another minor child in your care is six years imprisonment.

The new law toughens penalties and removes the obligation to use violence. This is of course progress, but in the Netherlands consent has been required by law for 28 days.

So when the Dutch authorities chose van de Velde, portrayed the outrage over the choice as a media invention, and described van de Velde as “an exemplary professional and human being,” they were not simply justifying something inexcusable. Rather, they were reflecting how Dutch law viewed the crime of rape.

Of course, US sports federations also have a shameful history of ignoring or failing to investigate allegations and even cases of sexual abuse, so it is reasonable to ask whether the US would allow an American van de Velde to compete.

There is no way to know for sure. But the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee now has a mechanism in place to exclude coaches or athletes like van de Velde: The US Center for Safesport regularly disciplines athletes and coaches for unprofessional or criminal behavior.

Before the 2021 Olympic Games, Safesport suspended fencer Alen Hadzic, who faced multiple allegations of sexual harassment. A referee lifted the suspension, and Hedzic went to Tokyo as a replacement. He was not allowed to live in the athletes’ village (van de Velde does not live in the village in Paris). Now Hadzic is on Safesports List of persons permanently ineligible to participate.

“We are deeply concerned that anyone convicted of sexual abuse of a minor could participate in the 2024 Olympic Games,” said Ju’Riese Colón, CEO of SafeSport. “Such a criminal conviction would violate the US Center for SafeSport’s Code of Conduct.”

Van de Velde is now 29, a husband and father; his victim is 22. At the verdict, the court heard witnesses say that she had been hurting herself since the incident. The judge told van de Velde: “The psychological damage inflicted on this child is enormous.”

In a 2018 interview Speaking to Dutch broadcaster NOS, van de Velde described the rape as “the biggest mistake of my young life” and said: “I can’t undo it, so I have to live with the consequences. … I can’t avoid it. I can continue to blame myself a hundred thousand times for it happening and how it happened.”

He said he thought the girl was older when he met her online. When she said she was 12, “I was really shocked and immediately broke off contact.” But then he got back in touch and decided to go to England. “I booked the ticket in the morning and flew out in the afternoon.”

He said that at 19 he was “kind of lost.”

He said if he could go back in time and talk to his 19-year-old self, he would say, “Get help.”

Today, Dutch authorities hear from a man who regrets that he deserves a second chance. But perhaps you are just seeing one man’s pathetic revelation.