Gymnast Yuri van Gelder has denied that he was abusing alcohol during the Olympic games and says that even if he was it would not justify his expulsion from the Dutch team, news agency ANP reports.

Van Gelder was sent home from Rio after the Dutch team leaders said he had failed to show the appropriate standard of behaviour. According to some reports, he had returned to the Olympic village in the early hours of the morning drunk.

The ring specialist has now mounted a legal challenge to the Dutch Olympic committee NOS*NSF which will be heard in Arnhem on Friday morning.

Van Gelder is demanding the NOC*NSF allow him to take part in the final of the rings event on Monday in Rio and that the organisation pays his plane ticket back.

Van Gelder says he heard that he had been disqualified on the night of August 9 and was put on a plane with no time to prepare or consult a lawyer.