In 2016, Steven van de Velde pleaded guilty to three counts of raping a 12-year British schoolgirl. On Sunday, the registered sex offender was knocked out of the Paris Olympics.
You, like most people in this thread, are confusing support for a person with support for a form of punishment which is humanitarian and rehabilitative, rather than vengeful and punitive.
Someone in another thread showed a deleted Instagram post, but I can't find it now. I suppose it could have been a photoshop or something. Also, I don't speak Dutch so I could only approximate that's what it said. Anyway, the rest is definitely true.
The times article said he was very transparent and remorseful though. I find it really bad that you people think a country would be so desperate as to let a criminal off the hook just because he's good at some sport, it's not like he's a powerful politician or something.