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Paula Radcliffe apologises after saying athlete who raped girl, 12, shouldn’t be banned from Olympics
25 July 2024, 10:59
Paula Radcliffe has apologised for defending the selection of an Olympic athlete who has a child rape conviction.
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British former distance runner Ms Radcliffe was asked on LBC yesterday whether Steven Van de Velde should be allowed to compete.
She said Van de Velde 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.'
Her comments have sparked outrage and she has been individually apologising to people on social media.
In one reply, she wrote that she's "mortified" that she "expressed it so badly and didn't condemn the rape out loud".
Van de Velde, who was 19 at the time of the assault, admitted three counts of rape against a child he met after travelling from Amsterdam in August 2014.
He was sentenced to four years in prison in 2016, but was allowed to return to the Netherlands to complete his sentence and was released after a year.
His decision to compete in the Paris games has been controversial, with some arguing he should not have been allowed to compete.
“It’s a very dangerous line to go down given that we allow people who cheat in sports and take drugs to then come back and compete,” Ms Radcliffe told LBC’s Andrew Marr last night.
“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.”
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The former long-distance runner said it would be a ‘tough thing to do’ to ‘punish him twice’ given that he has already served his jail sentence.
“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,” she added.
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“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.”
The girl - whom Van de Velde met and spoke with on social media - was raped at an address in Milton Keynes.
He had advised her to get the morning after pill as they had not used contraception.
It was her visit to a family planning clinic that alerted the authorities, who stepped in because of the girl's young age.
Following van de Velde's early release in 2017, Van De Velde said: "I do want to correct all the nonsense that has been written about me when I was locked up.
"I did not read any of it, on purpose, but I understand that it was quite bad, that I have been branded as a sex monster, as a paedophile. That I am not, really not.
"Everyone can have their opinion about me, but it is only fair if they also know my side of the story."
In response, the NSPCC said: "Van de Velde's lack of remorse and self-pity is breathtaking and we can only begin to imagine how distressed his victim must feel if she sees his comments.
"Grooming can leave a child feeling ashamed or even guilty because they believe they have somehow willingly participated when, in fact, an adult has preyed upon them in order to sexually exploit them."
Recently, van de Velde joined up with a new partner, Matthew Immers, and they are the second ranked Dutch team for the Olympics.
They secured one of their country’s two men’s spots at Paris 2024 and are ranked 11th on the overall rankings heading into the Games.
