Convicted rapist Steven van de Velde cries in post-Olympics interviews

Steven van de Velde and his partner Matthew Immers were eliminated from the Olympic beach volleyball competition after losing to Brazil in straight sets.

Dutch beach volleyball player and convicted child rapist Steven van de Velde has broken his silence about his controversial inclusion in the Olympics in his first media appearances after the Paris Games. He revealed in an interview that he considered quitting the Olympics but didn’t want to “give others the power to bully me away.”

Van de Velde and his partner Matthew Immers were eliminated from the beach volleyball competition after losing to Brazil in straight sets during the round of 16. The pair played four matches in the tournament and Van de Velde was heartily booed by spectators at each game.

Even before Van de Velde stepped foot in Paris’s Eiffel Tower Stadium, he was the subject of intense scrutiny after sports fans and activists learned he pleaded guilty to raping a 12-year-old British girl. Petitions sought to have the convicted rapist disqualified from the Games and advocates called for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to investigate how he was allowed to compete.

For its part, the IOC said it was powerless to stop the Dutch Olympic team from sending an athlete who qualified in the usual way.

During the Games, Van de Velde was not able to comment on the outrage swirling around him because he was barred by his national committee from talking to the media, a break from long-standing IOC policy. But now that he is back home in the Netherlands, Van de Velde is speaking out.

In an interview with Dutch national broadcaster NOS, Van de Velde said he considered quitting the competition both before and during the Olympics.

“I definitely had a moment of breaking down, both before the tournament and during it. But I thought: I’m not going to give others the power to bully me away or get me away,” Van de Velde said.

Nearly every time Van de Velde served the ball during his matches at the Paris Games, spectators in the crowd booed and jeered, though there was some mixed applause from orange-clad Dutch fans. The athlete told NOS the booing had an impact on his ability to play.