Beach volleyball begins at the Paris Olympics on Saturday in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower and with the sport under the spotlight because of the inclusion of a Dutch player convicted of rape.
Steven van de Velde was convicted in 2016 of raping an underage girl and sentenced to four years in prison.
He served part of his sentence in Britain and was then transferred to the Netherlands, where he was eventually released and took up volleyball again in 2017.
The Netherlands’ decision to pick the 29-year-old sparked outrage in the lead-up to the Games. He is not staying at the athletes’ village, according to Dutch press agency ANP, in order to “establish calm”.
Officials said they would also take the unusual step of isolating him from his teammates during the Games and he has been banned from talking to the media.
His selection has drawn criticism from women’s and sports safety groups.
Australia said they would not pick anyone for the Olympics with a criminal conviction of that nature.
Van de Velde will first appear on the sand with teammate Matthew Immers on Sunday, the second day of beach volleyball, when the Netherlands take on an Italian pair.
Twenty-four teams start in both the men’s and women’s events, before being whittled down to 16 for the knockout stages, with the finals taking place on August 9 and 10.
– ‘Wow factor’ –
Beach volleyball has grown to become one of the most popular events at the Olympics since its inclusion for the first time in 1996.
This time, the event will be held at a temporary venue in the heart of the French capital, near the foot of the “Iron Lady”.
“I don’t mind rubbing it into everyone’s faces that we are playing at the Eiffel Tower,” said Taliqua Clancy, silver medallist in Tokyo three years ago with the Australian women’s team.
“It’s just an absolute wow factor,” said US women’s player Kristen Nuss.
The US pair of Miles Partain and Andrew Benesh will kickstart the action against Cuba’s Noslen Diaz Amaro and Jorge Luis Alayo Moliner on Saturday, launching a bid to take home America’s first men’s gold since Beijing in 2008.
The US team have high hopes for Chase Budinger, a former NBA competitor who left basketball to become a professional beach volleyball player.
Budinger believes his NBA work ethic is an advantage.
“When I switched to beach volleyball I kind of learned that a lot of players choose this as a lifestyle more than a profession,” he said.
“I really wanted to instil that this is my profession, sport, and treat it that way — so that means practising five days a week… just doing all the little tangible things that you don’t see very often in beach volleyball players.”
The women’s tournament also starts on Saturday when China face Tokyo silver medallists Australia.
China have never won beach volleyball gold but in Xue Chen and Xia Xinyi they have the top seeds and reigning Asian Games champions.
The United States are the current Olympic women’s champions, with Norway the men’s holders.
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