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Olympics 2024 athlete Steven van der Velde has been booed by the crowd after being allowed to compete at the Paris Games despite his conviction for raping a 12-year-old girl. The 29-year-old is representing the Netherlands in the beach volleyball, with his country opening their tournament by facing Italy in Pool B.
Van der Velde has partnered with Matthew Immers, with the duo taking on Italian pairing Alex Ranghieri and Adrian Carambula at the Eiffel Tower stadium.
But fans in Paris and around the world are clearly unhappy that he hasn’t been banned from the Olympics, with spectators at the venue making their views known by booing his name after he was introduced at the start of the match.
Van der Velde was sentenced to four years in prison in 2016 after admitting three counts of rape against a girl from Britain.
The volleyball player travelled from his home in Amsterdam to the UK in August 2014 after meeting the girl on Facebook and raped her at an address in Milton Keynes.
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