AS the Olympics began in Paris with a stunning ceremony on the River Seine, we all knew that disgraced dressage star Charlotte Dujardin wouldn’t be there among the 10,500 athletes.
And she didn’t deserve to be.
Footage from four years ago of her whipping her horse “24 times like an elephant in a circus” has rightly seen to that.
She is under investigation by the sport’s governing body, had her public funding axed and has now been dropped as an ambassador for a horse charity. Good.
There is no place for a woman like this at the inspirational event that is the Olympics, where our children’s real-life heroes are made.
Yes, over the years there’s been cheating and doping scandals but these games are meant to be about role models.
So how the hell can it be that among those athletes at Paris 2024 is a man who raped a 12-year-old child in Britain just eight years ago?
Beach volleyball player Steven van de Velde was 19 when he contacted the girl on Facebook, travelled to Milton Keynes from the Netherlands in 2014, plied her with alcohol and raped her.
He had full knowledge of her age and heartbreakingly only stopped when she complained she was in pain.
He pleaded guilty to three counts of child rape and was sentenced to four years at Aylesbury Crown Court in 2016.
Van de Velde served 12 months in a UK prison, before being transferred to his home country where he was released after a further month.
Since then that poor girl — who has only just left her teens — has self-harmed and overdosed on drugs.
But he is allowed to represent his country.
What an absolute disgrace.
The National Olympic Committee of the Netherlands says he has served his sentence and completed an extensive rehabilitation programme, while experts had concluded there was now no risk of this man reoffending.
The country’s blinkered team boss,
Pieter van den Hoogenband, says he’s “surprised by the fuss” over the child rapist, who will be competing today, saying “measures” have been taken including housing him away from the athletes’ village.
Which is probably the only responsible thing he’s done because there is no age limit at the Olympics and there is one young girl there who is just 11.
Van de Velde’s volleyball partner Matthew Immers described him as “like a second father” who he feels “comfortable” with.
You wonder if he would feel the same if he himself was a father to a 12-year-old girl. I doubt it.
During an interview, BBC pundit and Olympian Paula Radcliffe shockingly said she wished him the “best of luck” because he’d turned his life around and is married.
She swiftly realised how distasteful this was, following criticism, and rightly apologised.
Yes, he has turned his life around but I doubt his victim has.
Imagine her pain if she sees that vile human standing on the podium, grinning from ear to ear, with a medal around his neck as if what he did to her is irrelevant.
What a kick in the teeth that would be for her — and what kind of deterrent does that give to men who contemplate committing rape?
Team Australia chief Anna Meares has said that if an “athlete or staff member had that conviction” they wouldn’t be a member of her team.
And we can take comfort from the fact that we in our country would have got rid of Van de Velde in our sport long before he got anywhere near Team GB.
The same clearly can’t be said of the Netherlands or the International Olympic Committee (IOC) — which has washed its hands of the situation, saying athlete selection is all down to individual committees.
So who is going to the Olympics next, then?
An armed robber? A paedophile?
Sod it, let’s shove a murderer on to the podium for kids around the world to idolise.
They may as well.
Because the IOC seems to be displaying the same low morals as the Netherlands.
In which case, it risks tarnishing the Games forever.
BRAVE TO AIR GRIEF
WATCHING Amanda Abbington being interviewed by Krishnan Guru Murthy has made me realise how Strictly truly has affected her life.
There are people that have piled into her since she first spoke out doubting what she’s said.
The abuse she has received for her bravery is disgusting.
She and her daughter have had “rape threats”, her son death threats and people have told the actress they want her to “die of cancer”.
She says it has been “brutal, relentless and unforgiving”, with dozens of threats a day.
Amanda said she came forward because she doesn’t “want people to be frightened to speak out”.
Seeing her fighting back tears, playing with her fingers and tightly squeezing her hands together in anguish was heartbreaking.
Can we please remember that if this brave woman hadn’t voiced her concerns then the incident with Zara McDermott may not have come to light either and her pro dance partner Graziano Di Prima would probably have waltzed his way on to the next series too.
Amanda deserves plaudits for that alone.
WHAT an idiot Coldplay’s Chris Martin is.
He has slammed the prison terms handed to five Just Stop Oil activists and is among other celebrities who want a meeting with Attorney General Richard Hermer to discuss “the jailing of truth-tellers”.
M25 demo leader Roger Hallam got five years and four members of his gang four years each.
Those “truth-tellers” caused utter chaos and stopped people going to work, to funerals, to hospital appointments and to see dying relatives.
But Chris probably doesn’t appreciate the chaos brought to our roads because he lives thousands of miles away . . . in California.
COSMIC ORDER AT PLAY
LUCKY Audrey Cobb and her three children have just won a National Lottery jackpot after playing the same numbers since the day it began in 1994.
I have too.
But, while the lucky family from Peterborough have just had £1million plonked in their bank account, annoyingly the maximum I have ever won is £50 – and I worked out I have spent more than £5,000 on tickets.
Audrey’s son David says he “always” thought they would win.
I always used to think that Noel Edmonds’ belief in the power of ‘cosmic ordering’ was a load of absolute mumbo jumbo, but maybe that’s the actual key to getting what you want.
So . . . I AM going to win the Lottery jackpot.
Ha! Can’t wait!
THE NHS tells us to eat fish twice a week. It is so good for you, after all.
But if you’re going on holiday to South America I’d avoid it at all costs.
Sharks there have been found to have COCAINE in them.
The good news is that experts say there is no evidence the drug will trigger aggressive shark rampages, but it presumably means that more fish in the area are contaminated.
Brings a whole new meaning to ultra- processed food.
LOVE ’N’ LAUGHS
SPEED-dating is making a comeback and attendance figures are surging, which is great news for all singletons.
People are loving it because it cuts out all the annoying swipes, scrolling, vile messages and Photoshopped profile pics.
It is, in fact, a bit like dating in the old days, but better because you’ve got a room full of people who are actually gagging to go on a date – with built-in ice breaker drinks on hand.
Apparently, the days of speed-dating being a cringe fest are gone and the vibe is more “fun night out”.
Oh, to be single again
IMAGINE going to a child’s birthday party that gets so out of hand that the mother hosting it is told she is s**t at her job and is accused mid-bash of having an affair with another woman’s husband.
Sounds horrid.
But comedienne Katherine Ryan says that’s what happened at her daughter Violet’s seventh birthday because there’s “always alcohol at my kids parties . . . but this year was the worst”.
Apparently the mums went “wild” on champagne.
Imagine if it wasn’t the house of a rich celebrity but a small house on a rundown estate where they were knocking back cider.
Then someone might actually call in social services.
J-LO’S GLO AFTER BEN NO-SHOW
THANKS to a recent dose of Covid, I finally watched Bridgerton in bed, from start to finish, and realised what all the fuss is about.
Clearly J-Lo is a fan too.
She and her friends played dress- up in outfits based on the Regency era for her 55th birthday bash, and the fun- loving singer took to Instagram to tell her fans: “Dearest Gentle Reader . . . And a splendid evening was had by all.”
Probably helped because that grumpy husband of hers, Ben Affleck, was nowhere to be seen.
