The child rapist who competed in the Paris Olympics for the Netherlands was not happy with the negative reception he received from spectators.
Steven Van de Velde, 30, served 12 months of a four-year sentence after he was found guilty of three counts of raping a 12-year-old British girl in Milton Keynes in 2014 when he was 19.
He would go on to be selected to compete for the Dutch volleyball team at the Olympics.
There he was roundly booed and jeered whenever he competed, until being knocked out in his fourth game with partner Matthew Immers.
Van de Velde did not talk to media while in Paris, but later sat down with a Dutch newspaper and even cried during the session, according to the Daily Mail.
Van de Velde said he nearly quit the competition, but didn’t want to give in to “bullies” or let the critics win, according to the report.
“I definitely had a moment of breaking down, both before the tournament and during it,” he told NOS in Dutch, according to AFP.
“But I thought, ‘I don’t want that. I’m not going to give others the power to decide they can bully me away or get rid of me.”
Van de Velde did admit he gets the criticism and even said: “I understand that it’s an issue: should someone with such a past be allowed to stand on such a podium. That’s a legitimate question.”
While acknowledging “I did something wrong, 10 years ago,” Van de Velde said the coverage was impacting his wife and child.
Victims advocates, lawmakers and fans called on Van de Velde to be banned from competing in the Olympics, however, the IOC said it could not stop the Netherlands from letting him go, since he had qualified, according to the report.