An Olympic disgrace

This article was first published in the Washington Post.

We don’t know who was in the room when the Dutch Olympic Committee decided it would be fine to send a convicted child rapist to the Olympic Games. But we can be pretty sure who wasn’t — anyone who has experienced sexual violence as a child. As a survivor of child sexual violence, I know what it’s like for our voices and experiences to be ignored, as they so often are.

Almost all the reporting about Steven van de Velde has focused on him and his apparent journey of redemption. Barry Svrluga’s July 29 Sports column, “Why is a convicted child rapist competing? No answer is sufficient.,” is an exception.

Missing from the general narrative has been any consideration of the impact of seeing Mr. Van de Velde at the Games in Paris, both on the girl he raped and the hundreds of millions of children around the world every year who suffer sexual violence.

Just think for a moment. Would-be Olympians are out of the Games for whipping a horse, for flying a drone and for sneaking out of the Olympic Village for a night on the town. Do any of those things, and you’re out. Rape a child, you’re still an Olympian. What does that say to survivors about how the world values them?

When nations gather in Colombia in November for the first-ever global ministerial conference on ending violence against children, survivors will be there, and their voices will be heard. This should be the norm, not the exception. And if the Dutch Olympic Committee had listened the way it should have, Steven van de Velde would not be at the Olympics.