The Dutch beach volleyball player was showered with boos after being introduced to the crowd on Sunday, almost a decade to the day after he pleaded guilty to raping a 12-year year-old British girl when he was 19
#Olympics#Van de Velde#Paris2024#Olympics2024
#Olympics#Van de Velde#Paris2024#Olympics2024
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00:00Stephen van de Velde episode leaves no winners on dark day for Paris Olympics.
00:06The Dutch beach volleyball player was showered with booze after being introduced to the crowd
00:10on Sunday, almost a decade to the day after he pleaded guilty to raping a 12-year-old
00:16British girl when he was 19.
00:19Second chances are all around here at the Olympics in a city getting its third opportunity
00:24to welcome the world.
00:27Shaqari Richardson is being guided by Dennis Mitchell, who served a two-year doping ban
00:32as an athlete and then was recorded offering to supply testosterone and human growth hormone
00:37to those he later mentored.
00:40Last year he was named USA Athletics Coach of the Year.
00:43Mitchell has been drinking in his sports last chance saloon for so long he can barely stand
00:48up, but here he is, with his Access All Areas pass and another moment in the spotlight.
00:56But he is not alone.
00:57There are too many athletes to list in Paris who are back competing after an enforced spell
01:03on the sidelines.
01:05Grave error of judgment, the unofficial motto of the last few days should not necessarily
01:10be career-ending for athletes, such as Charlotte Dujardin, who pulled out of the Games after
01:16a video emerged of her excessively whipping a horse.
01:21Missteps, mistakes, and lessons learned the hard way are part of sport's constant quest
01:26for that perfect redemption arc.
01:29But for some things so heinous there is no equivalence, no neat comparison for the sake
01:34of consistency.
01:35Sometimes one rule for them and one for another is an inelegant but ideal solution.
01:41There is no straight line between doping and child abuse.
01:45Dutch beach volleyball Steven van Diveld made his Olympic debut on Sunday under the shadow
01:51of the Eiffel Tower.
01:54Almost a decade to the day after he pleaded guilty to raping a 12-year-old British girl
01:58when he was 19, after a week of leaden skies and incessant rain, the sun came out in Paris
02:04on Sunday, but this was a dark morning in the history of these Games.
02:10There were some jeers and some boos as he was introduced to the crowd, alongside partner
02:14Matthew Immers, for their first-round match against Italy's Alex Rongeri and Adrian Carambula.
02:20However, if you were expecting a cacophony of condemnation, you got off at the wrong
02:25metro stop.
02:27But you don't come to the beach volleyball to stage a protest, especially when the seats
02:31cost up to £300 and the isolated pockets of disapproval were soon replaced by Mexican
02:36waves and a pumping dance track, enjoyed by giddy fans in swaying stands.
02:42If this was a somber moment for sport, someone forgot to tell the DJ.
02:48We talked about it one time and we want to enjoy every moment on this stage because we
02:53gave everything together for the past three years to qualify, said Immers.
02:59Stephen is a really nice guy and for me, I played two years with him, there was nothing
03:03and now there is some people that don't like it because it is a big tournament.
03:09The International Olympic Committee's moral authority expired many games ago, the truth
03:14being you can't stage an event of this ambition and scale, with the commercial billions needed
03:19to support it, just by preaching about the power of sport and asking for peace.