‘Ashamed’ BBC pundit Paula Radcliffe issues grovelling apology statement after wishing Dutch volleyball player who was jailed for raping a 12-year-old ‘the best of luck’ at Paris Olympics – insisting she ‘categorically condemns’ the crime

BBC pundit and Olympian Paula Radcliffe apologised with a grovelling statement on Thursday after she wished luck to a Dutch paedophile who raped a 12-year-old girl.

Beach volleyball player Steven van de Velde, now 29, was sentenced to four years in prison in 2016 after pleading guilty to raping a 12-year-old British girl when he was 19.

His inclusion in the team has sparked a huge controversy, with security upped at the Dutch team’s base in the athletes’ village.

Former World and European champion runner Radcliffe, in Paris for the broadcaster, admitted she was ‘wishing him the best of luck’ during a shocking radio interview with LBC.

‘It’s a tough thing to do to punish him [van de Velde] twice and if he’s managed to successfully turn his life around after being sent to prison and to qualify and be playing sport at the highest level, then I actually wish him the best of luck,’ she said.

Paula Radcliffe apologised with a grovelling statement on social media on Thursday after wishing luck to a Dutch paedophile who raped a 12-year-old girl ahead of the Olympics

Dutch Olympic beach volleyball player Van de Velde was jailed for child rape back in 2016

Radcliffe’s apology was posted on social media platform X at 2.35pm UK time on Thursday

After sparking huge backlash for her staggering comments — and rejecting claims that Van de Velde should not be competing — Radcliffe posted an apology statement on social media.

The 50-year-old urged that she ‘categorically condemns’ rape and explained why she made her comments about Van de Velde.

‘Last night I gave an interview and made some comments that I deeply regret,’ she said in a statement on Thursday afternoon.

‘I want to sincerely apologise and emphasise how much I categorically condemn the crime of rape. I am ashamed that my words so inaccurately represented myself. It was a mistake not to clearly denounce this at the beginning.

‘In trying to explain how the athlete in question could possibly be allowed to compete at the Olympic Games, my thought process referred to the legalities and regulations when I also intended to highlight the danger of these allowing an athlete convicted of such a crime to return.

‘Competing in the Olympic Games is a privilege that should be reserved for those who uphold the Olympic moral ideals.

‘I absolutely should not have wished him luck and genuinely have no explanation for why I said that.

‘I am truly sorry for wrongly expressing my intended views and understand that this statement can in no way repair the damage but hopefully conveys my deep regret. Paula Radcliffe.’

Also responding to an X user who called her comments about Van de Velde ‘shocking’, she said: ‘I agree and can only apologise, that isn’t what I intended to say.

‘I stress that it isn’t something that can be excused in any way. I was confused in my head and responding to the right to ban him from the Games and I don’t know why I wished him luck. Again I apologise’.

Mail Sport’s Nik Simon (right) confronted Van de Velde upon his arrival in Paris on Monday

The 29-year-old was sentenced to four years in prison for the rape of a 12-year-old girl in 2016

Ahead of posting her grovelling 168-word apology statement, Radcliffe also waded in to the scandal surrounding dressage star Charlotte Dujardin, who was banned for six months and withdrew from the Games after footage emerged of her repeatedly whipping a horse in a training session.

Speaking on Tonight with Andrew Marr, the retired long-distance runner also bizarrely said that while she found it ‘distressing’ to watch the video of Charlotte Dujardin whipping her horse, she felt for ‘both sides in it, particularly if that’s what goes on all the time with dressage’.