The Lord of the Drinks has fallen.
Yuri van Gelder earned a spot in the rings final at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, but the Dutch gymnast won’t be able to compete for a medal. The 33-year-old, known to many as the “Lord of the Rings,” was sent home by the Netherlands Olympic Committee (NOC) for drinking alcohol.
“It was a very difficult decision for us to make,” NOC spokesman Maurits Hendriks said in a statement, according to Yahoo! Sports. “This is terrible for Yuri, but at such a breach of the values within TeamNL, we have no other choice. We stand for excellence with respect to all agreements and rules. Our athletes have an exemplary standard and this behavior is absolutely unacceptable. Yuri has left us no choice.”
Van Gelder competed in the men’s preliminaries Saturday night. He then left the Olympic Village and returned Sunday, at which point he admitted to drinking alcohol during his night out, according to the NOC. Drinking alcohol apparently is against team rules, and van Gelder’s history of drug and alcohol use probably didn’t do him any favors, either.
This probably isn’t the last we hear of this story, although van Gelder reportedly returned home to the Netherlands on Tuesday. Van Gelder plans to take immediate legal action against the NOC in the hopes of being allowed to return to Rio in time to compete in next Monday’s rings final, the gymnast’s attorney said Wednesday, according to International Gymnast Magazine.
Thumbnail photo via YouTube screengrab
