Exactly one week ago, the decision of the Dutch Olympic Committee to exclude Joost Luiten, Darius Van Driel and Dewi Weber from the Olympic Games was made known. Despite having made the sporting merits and having qualified through the established criteria, the national committee understood that they barely had medal options or to obtain an Olympic diploma and that, therefore, they would not register them for the Paris 2024 Games.
It was not the first time this happened, in 2020 they had already made a similar resolution by which Luiten himself and Will Besseling had been left out. This time Joost Luiten was clear that he was not going to stand idly by and took his cause to court, understanding that it was an arbitrary decision and that the committee was overstepping its competences.
Both the players and the federation had tried to explain that golf is a rara avis in sport and that almost every week any player who is in the tournament field has options to win. The most evident example on which the Dutchman’s defence was based is that in Tokyo the Slovak Rory Sabatini, number 161 in the world and the Taiwanese C.T Pan, then 181, won medals. Luiten is currently 151. The committee ignored the allegations presented.
Well, the courts have already spoken. As Luiten has announced on his social networks, his complaint has been heard and the competent judge has agreed with him. The Dutch player must be registered today in the Dutch team that will compete in Paris 2024: “I have won the case and the Committee has to readmit me before five o’clock this afternoon. The Olympic rings shine again”.
Therefore, unless a subsequent appeal dictates otherwise, Joost Luiten will be part of his second Olympic Games after his participation in Rio de Janeiro 2016. With this resolution, he joins his teammate Anne Van Dame, 108 in the world women’s ranking and who had not been excluded. The Dutchwoman, a proven golfer with participation in the Solheim, had indeed met the committee’s criteria.
For his part, Darius Van Driel has already announced that he will take the same legal actions as his compatriot and it is expected that player Dewi Weber will follow the same path as her teammates to claim her place in Paris.
