Dutch beach volleyball player Steven van de Velde, who was convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl, recently admitted that he contemplated quitting the Olympics due to the controversy surrounding his participation in the event. Van de Velde, who was 19 at the time of the 2014 crime and is now 30, served a four-year prison sentence starting in 2016 and was released in 2017. Despite his past, he represented the Netherlands in beach volleyball at the Olympic Games in Paris this year with the support of the Dutch Volleyball Federation.
In a recent interview with a Dutch national broadcaster, van de Velde revealed that he had moments where he considered withdrawing from the tournament but ultimately decided not to let external pressures dictate his actions. However, he acknowledged that the negative reception he received, including being booed on several occasions, had a detrimental impact on his performance.
