By Karolos Grohmann
PARIS (Reuters) – Australia would not pick a convicted rapist for the Olympics, team chief Anna Meares said on Monday after the Netherlands selected a beach volleyball player convicted of that offence.
Steven van de Velde, named last month in the Dutch Olympic team for Paris, was sentenced to four years in prison in Britain in 2016 following the rape of a 12-year-old girl two years earlier when he was 19.
After serving part of his sentence there, he was transferred to the Netherlands and his sentence came under the rules of Dutch law.
Meares said she would not comment specifically on another team’s selection criteria and processes.
“If an athlete or staff member had that conviction they would not be allowed to be a member of our team,” Meares told a press conference. “We have stringent policies on safeguarding within our team.”
Team Australia has a number of athletes younger than 16 and 18 years of age.
“We have full confidence in the policies and training of our staff,” Meares said.
Van de Velde has been competing in beach volleyball again since 2017.
The Dutch team have said it has taken steps to mitigate the impact of his participation by moving him to alternative accommodation in Paris and not the athletes’ village.
There has also been a ban imposed on Van de Velde talking to the media.
His selection, however, has angered women’s and sports rights groups who said the Dutch decision to include him was sending the wrong message.
The selection of athletes for the Olympics rests with each national Olympic committee.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Ed Osmond)
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