Steven van de Velde’s partner says he was ‘disappointed’ with the crowd reaction after the convicted rapist was relentlessly booed again at the Olympic Games in Paris.
Van de Velde was sentenced to four years in prison in 2016 after pleading guilty to raping a 12-year-old British girl when he was 19.
He resumed his volleyball career after serving 12 months of a four-year sentence and was named in the Netherlands’ Olympic squad in June.
The 29-year-old was booed during his first appearance at the beach volleyball event on Sunday and was given an even more hostile reception as the Dutch took on Chile on Wednesday afternoon.
Van de Velde was booed every time he served at the Eiffel Tower Stadium with his volleyball partner Matthew Immers again defending his teammate.
‘I don’t want to say much about it. What was in the past is in the past,’ he told reporters. ‘I can’t change his past. I’m here to play with him. We want to have good results here. There are a lot of people who support us. We do it for them.
‘He has a lot of pressure on his shoulders. I’m OK with that. Mentally we are strong, I am strong, we will get through this together.’
On the increased booing van de Velde received, Immers added: ‘It is what it is. I was disappointed with the fans. We talked on the field and asked ourselves: what do we need from each other? It was worse than in the first game. We need each other on the field, the hugs, the cheering.’
Van de Velde’s inclusion in the Dutch squad has been persistently defended by teammates and the team’s selectors and decision-makers.
‘Steven has been active in international sports and the beach volleyball world for a long time,’ Van den Hoogenband, who won swimming gold medals at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics, told Dutch outlet NOS at the start of the Games.
‘He has played in World Cups, European Championships and World Championships, but then you see that things are different around the Games. That things are exaggerated around the Games.
‘We don’t have blinkers on and we don’t close our eyes. I’m the boss, responsible for the whole team, for the athletes. He’s just a member of the team, he qualified, and that’s why he deserves our support.’
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