Dutch gymnast Yuri van Gelder kicked out for drinking

DUTCH gymnast Yuri van Gelder finally made an Olympics team on his fourth attempt. Then he went and completely stuffed it up.

Yuri Van Gelder of The Netherlands has been expelled from Rio for drinking.

THE Netherlands Olympic team has suffered a blow with Dutch gymnast Yuri van Gelder being sent home from Rio after drinking alcohol on a night out.

Van Gelder spent the night celebrating after qualifying for the finals of the rings event on Saturday, returning in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The Dutch team’s ambassador has confirmed that the 33-year-old medal contender left the Olympic Village on Saturday night and returned the following morning, violating rules concerning alcohol consumption and leaving the team base. He was put on a plane home on Monday.

“It’s been a very difficult decision for us to make. It’s terrible for Yuri, but this kind of behaviour is unacceptable,” said team ambassador Maurits Hendriks in a statement on Tuesday morning.

“In sports terms this is a disaster, but we had no other choice given the violation of our values.”

Van Gelder, the 2005 world champion on the rings, was due to complete in the finals next Monday. He is yet to comment on the incident.

The Olympics is full of sports the average punter would never have seen live or even on TV. Its full of athletes you’ve never heard of all of a sudden achieving global fame. These men and women have only one chance every four years to reach the sort of status enjoyed by the sporting superstars we take for granted (think Roger Federer, Tiger Woods, Ronaldo).

That’s what makes van Gelder’s actions so staggering. Every time the Games roll around you hear a plethora of stories about sacrifice, about dedication, and about the extreme lengths athletes go to just to get a chance to represent their country, let alone win a medal.

Yuri Van Gelder, a Rio Olympian no more.

The Dutchman should know more than most just how much it takes to get to an Olympics. He missed out on selection in 2004, 2008 and 2012. You’d think — given it was fourth (and probably last) time lucky — he’d do anything to achieve success.

Just look at what he said before competition started: “I’m finally here. I am not here to not make a final. I am in fourth place now. It will be difficult.”

Van Gelder’s actions simply don’t match up with his words. Just days out from his final — an event he’s spent more than 12 years trying to reach — he hit the turps.

Whereas the likes of Brazil’s Rafaela Silva, America’s Lilly King and China’s Fu Yuanhui will be remembered as athletes who lit up the Rio Games, van Gelder will be remembered for all the wrong reasons — if at all.

But this isn’t the first time van Gelder has faced discipline over his actions. In 2009, he was suspended from the Dutch Gymnastics Union for one year for taking cocaine three days before the national championships in Rotterdam. He later admitted he regretted his “lapse” and called himself “incredibly stupid”.

Van Gelder was also fired from his job with the Dutch military, which has a zero-tolerance policy to drugs.

The Dutchman, who earned the nickname “Lord of the Rings” for his world-champion performance on the apparatus, is now copping a new social-media driven moniker, being referred to as “Lord of the Drinks” on Twitter.

Originally published as Dutch gymnast Yuri van Gelder kicked out for drinking