Steven van de Velde, the Dutch beach volleyball player who served time in prison for rape, received a mixture of boos and applause when he was introduced before his opening match on Sunday at the Paris Games.

Van de Velde was greeted with only a handful of boos when he first took the sand for warmups, but the hooting was louder for the more formal pre-match introduction. His teammate Matthew Immers – and all the other players appearing at the Eiffel Tower Stadium so far in the Summer Games – received nothing but cheers.

  • Timii@biglemmowski.win
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    3 months ago

    Forget the IOC, how did anyone in the Netherlands think it was okay for him to represent their nation?

    • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      Oh, most people in the Netherlands who know about this think it’s completely absurd and it shouldn’t have happened.

      But for some reason the Olympic Committee disagrees.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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      3 months ago

      They apparently forgave him the moment he stepped off the boat back when he got released.

      • Visstix@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Well the people in charge of the olympic team at least… not the whole country. I only heard about this dude recently and he can fuck right off.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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          3 months ago

          I haven’t heard about any major protests in Amsterdam about them allowing a pedophile rapist on their Olympic team, have you?