Child rapist Steven van de Velde cries over getting booed at the Olympics
After receiving an invite to the 2024 Paris Olympics and special treatment from the International Olympic Committee, child rapist Steven van de Velde broke down crying on air over the smattering of boos he received during his games.
Outrage arose in the days leading up to the Olympics when news broke that the Netherlands was sending a convicted child rapist to represent the country in the men’s beach volleyball competition. Van de Velde was 19 when he raped a 12-year-old girl he had begun communicating with on Facebook. He continued their communications even after learning of her age and traveled all the way to England to assault her. After serving just one year of his prison sentence, van de Velde was released, and the Dutch Volleyball Association immediately allowed him to resume his career before selecting him for the Olympics.
Despite a Change.org petition and joint statement from multiple athlete advocacy groups demanding the Olympics disqualify van de Velde, the Olympics permitted him to compete. In fact, the IOC permitted the Dutch to give van de Velde special treatment, such as helping him find lodgings outside the Olympic Village, assigning him bodyguards, and giving him a pass from doing any media. The sole consequences that van de Velde experienced were a smattering of boos from spectators and, of course, the media reporting on his past crimes and presence at the Olympics. Apparently, that was enough to reduce him to tears during his first pity-seeking post-Olympics interview.
Steven van de Velde seeks pity after competing in the Olympics
Although van de Velde was protected from the media during the Olympics, he gave an interview to Dutch national broadcaster NOS once he was back home. Given that he has expressed little remorse for his past crimes, it’s unsurprising he spent the entire interview trying to get pity for his experiences at the Olympics. Instead of acknowledging that he never should’ve been given the privilege of competing at the sporting event, he complained about the boos he received, claiming that it impacted his performance. He stated, “So there is certainly a very good chance that it has had an influence on our game.”
Van de Velde also tried to paint his participation in the Olympics as brave and him standing up to “bullies.” When asked if he thought about quitting the competition, he stated, “I thought, ‘I don’t want that. I’m not going to give others the power to decide they can bully me away or get rid of me.'” He fails to recognize the people who were against his presence weren’t bullying him but were reacting to seeing a child abuser celebrated as an Olympian.
The interview only gets more pathetic as van de Velde begins weeping as he describes the boos and the media’s response to his criminal background. He claimed that the media went “too far” when a tabloid included a picture of his wife in an article. Van de Velde suggested that neither his wife nor teammate Matthew Immers should’ve been mentioned in reports. The Dutch Volleyball Association, which has staunchly defended van de Velde and requested his special treatment during the Olympics, also slammed the media, claiming it was responsible for the booing and was trying to “incite people.”
Van de Velde briefly addressed the fact that people have a right to hold him accountable “forever for what happened,” but immediately followed up by claiming it was “10 years ago” and that he was a better person now. Most will recognize that van de Velde has faced very minimal consequences for the horrific crime he committed. Yet, he really went on air to cry over the fact that he was booed and that the media ensured the public knew who he was and who the people supporting and defending him were. Somehow, he and the Dutch Volleyball Association aren’t putting it together that he was booed because he is a child rapist and not because the media “incited” some misplaced anger on him.
It truly doesn’t matter that his crime was “10 years ago.” He committed a life-altering crime against a child, yet he genuinely wants everyone to treat what he did as a tiny mistake. Meanwhile, instead of shedding tears over what he did and how much his presence at the Olympics must have hurt his victim and survivors around the world, he is sitting there crying for himself because he thinks a round of boos was too heavy a consequence for his crimes.
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