Netherlands gymnast Yuri van Gelder has been expelled from the Rio Olympics by his national committee, writes Douglas Imrie. (Dutch time) on Tuesday.
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Maurits Hendriks, responsible for maintaining team discipline as Chef de Mission of the NOC*NSF, and Hans Grootjes, leader of the Dutch delegation, together made the hard decision to end Van Gelder’s 13 year dream of appearing at the Olympics.
‘It was a very hard decision, ‘ chief of mission Maurits Hendriks said in a press release.
“It’s awful for Yuri, but this kind of behavior is unacceptable”, Dutch team ambassador Maurits Hendriks said (translated via the Guardian).
‘In sports terms this is a disaster, but we had no other choice given the violation of our values’. That does not belong to participation in the Olympics or any sporting event whatsoever.Yuri has left us no choice. We stand for excellence together, respecting all agreements and rules. “I hate to do it to Yuri, but this behavior is unacceptable”.
The 33-year-old left the Olympic village on Saturday evening and returned in the early hours of Sunday morning, also breaking the rules on leaving the team base.
In October 2010, he was pulled from the world championships in Rotterdam after admitting to using cocaine. Cocaine is on the doping list and he was suspended for a year. According to the newspaper, there were talks that he relapsed.
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Van Gelder, who was the rings world champion in 2005 and was Netherlands’ only hope for capturing a medal on the apparatus in Rio, has not commented at length about his latest suspension.
