Second Dutch player seeks legal remedy for Olympic snub
Joost Luiten has already won his case against Netherlands Olympic Committee
A second Dutch golfer, Darius Van Driel, has come forward to say he has taken up legal action against his country’s federation in order to be allowed to play at the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics.
“It is incomprehensible that NOC continues to persevere,” Van Driel, the 248th-ranked golfer in the world, wrote on social media Wednesday. “I have now also taken legal steps against the decision of the NOC. I have also qualified and want to participate in the OS, time is running out!”
The move by Van Driel comes on the heels of countryman Joost Luiten posting on social media Tuesday that he had won his court case against the Netherlands Olympic Committee to represent his country in Paris.
“The IGF is pleased to share that Luiten was confirmed by the Dutch Olympic Committee and Dutch Sports Federations (o compete in the men’s Olympic golf competition.”
Luiten and Van Driel seemed to have qualified via the final men’s Olympic Golf Ranking that they, along with would-be women’s qualifier Dewi Weber, were too much of a longshot to medal and wouldn’t be entered in the competition.
Dewi Weber was denied a spot in the 2024 Olympics by the Netherlands Olympic Committee. (
This, despite the fact that Rory Sabbatini, then the 161st ranked player in the world, won a silver for Slovakia in Tokyo four years ago. C.T. Pan, then world No. 181, won bronze.
“It basically started last Friday,” from this week’s BMW International Open in Munich, where both he and Van Driel are in the field. “A week ago, I heard I wasn’t going to the Olympics, they wouldn’t let me go, they said I wasn’t good enough. I thought about that for a couple of days and I thought what can I do and I thought I’m going to take some legal action and found a lawyer, a good one, and we started last Friday trying to see if we actually have a case that holds up in court.
“We thought we had, and yesterday there was the court day, and we won,” he continued. “I love sports and the Olympics is the biggest sport event in the world.”
Luiten, a six-time winner on the DP World Tour, was No. 40 in the final men’s Olympic Golf Ranking, but this was set to be the second straight Olympics in which Dutch Olympic officials kept their golfers home. Time will tell whether the court sides with Van Driel, too, giving the Dutch another shot at a medal.
The IGF will announce the final men’s and women’s fields on Tuesday, July 9.
The men’s golf competition is set for Aug. 1-4.