Dutch Olympian Steven Van De Velde, who served over a year in prison for raping a 12-year-old girl, was eliminated from the volleyball competition on Sunday, much to the apparent approval of the crowd, which cheered his loss.
Evandro Gonçalves de Oliveira, the world's best volleyball server, led the Brazilian team that defeated Velde and his teammate Matthew Immers.
The loss and Van De Velde's elimination relieved victims' advocacy groups that had sought his ban from the summer games due to his status as a registered UK sex offender.
The Netherlands team has supported the player throughout the summer games, while the International Olympic Committee claimed it lacked the authority to prevent the controversial athlete from competing.
Following Sunday's loss, Van De Velde avoided the media, as the Dutch team does not permit him to speak with reporters, according to the Daily Beast.
"If I can speak for him, after the match we lost, we were disappointed," Immers said of his teammate.
"But we said to each other, 'Look what we did together. Look how hard we fought with all the attention.' We stayed together. We cried together off the field and said, 'OK, let's just enjoy this moment.' And we did that. So I'm happy we did it that way."
The duo is set to play together next year in the European Championships in the Netherlands.
In 2016, Van De Velde pleaded guilty in Britain to raping a girl he traveled to meet following months of correspondence on social media after she sent him a friend request.
He was sentenced to four years in prison and was incarcerated in Britain for one year before being returned to the Netherlands under terms of a treaty.
