Former British Olympian Paula Radcliffe has defended the decision to allow convicted rapist Steven van de Velde to compete at the Paris Olympics.
Van de Velde will be representing Netherlands as part of the beach volleyball squad in the French capital. The 29-year-old 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.
His inclusion has been one of the biggest talking points heading into this summer’s Games with Dutch officials standing by their decision to select him.
Radcliffe, a former world champion marathon runner who represented Great Britain in four consecutive Olympic Games between 1996 and 2008, told LBC van de Velde ‘may well have turned his life around’ following his conviction, wishing him ‘the best of luck’.
‘I think that is a very dangerous line to go down given that we allow people who cheat in sport and take drugs in sport to then come back and then compete,’ Radcliffe told Tonight with Andrew Marr.
‘So, to ban someone, as I understand it, he was 19 at the time and he’s served his jail time and it’s a long time to carry on paying for that mistake for the rest of your life.
‘He may well have turned it around and completely repented. You certainly hope, I know that he is married now and has settled down.
‘I think it’s a tough thing to do to punish him twice and if he’s managed to successfully turn his life around after being sent to prison and to qualify and to be playing sport at the highest level, then I actually wish him the best of luck.
‘Obviously, he’ll be watched during the village, if it were to be repeated now or it had been last year I would be saying a different thing.
‘But I think the ban and the learning difference from 19 to 29 is huge.’
Netherlands team boss Pieter van den Hoogenband explained this week ‘measures’ have been taken to facilitate Van de Velde’s participation at the Games. Van de Velde will not speak to the media and is being housed away from the athlete’s village.
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.
‘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.
‘All athletes are dear to me and I try to support them. Steven and Matthew [Immers] are also part of that.’