Last week, the NOC and the Dutch Sports Federation denied Luiten and two other Dutch golfers the right to represent their country at the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris.

Luiten, Darius Van Driel and Dewi Weber were initially excluded by their country's Olympic committee because "they do not have a reasonable chance of being among the top players."

The frustrating part for Luiten and his colleagues is that they had qualified on merit, even though some bureaucrats believed they had no chance of even winning a diploma at the Paris Olympics. And what about the Olympic spirit? Well, it doesn't seem to matter much to some Dutch officials.

Qualification is based on the Official World Golf Ranking, with the top two players from each country qualifying for the Olympics, rising to four if they are all in the top 15. They have qualified under these rules.

However, the NOC has its own much stricter qualification rules. They require golfers to be ranked in the top 100 of the OWGR or in the top 40 of the International Golf Federation rankings. At the end of the qualification period, Luiten was ranked 147th in the OWGR and 40th in the IGF.

The NOC argued that Luiten and the other golfers did not have a "reasonable chance" of finishing in the top 8 at the Olympics and therefore should not be part of the Olympic delegation.

Luiten took to social media (Instagram) to announce that he would fight what he sees as an injustice and take the NOC's decision to court: "I will fight the decision of the NOC/NSF not to send me to the Olympics. We will take our case to a judge and get an independent judgement!!!".

After finding a lawyer and filing the appeal, Luiten wrote in an exuberant post a few days later: "The Olympic rings are coloured again. I won the court case and the @NOCNSF have to let me in before 5pm today!!! LET'S GO @olympics!!!"

He followed it up with another post showing him standing outside the courthouse, along with the note: "SPECIAL DAY TODAY! Going to the Olympics. Very happy with victory in court".

So far, there is no doubt that Luiten has found the justice in the courts that he was denied at the administrative level and will be able to take part in the men's singles tournament scheduled for 1-4 August at Le Golf National. Meanwhile, it is unclear what will happen to Van Driel and Weber.

It is not clear whether the ruling also applies to the other Dutch golfers who were denied a place in the Olympic Games, or whether the NOC has officially registered only Luiten as an Olympian (by court order).

Time will tell whether there will be complete justice, allowing all qualified athletes to participate, or whether it will only benefit those who have taken legal action.

What is certain is that the court's decision should serve as an example not only for Paris 2024, but also for future Olympic events, ensuring that those who qualify can take part and upholding the maxim of sport expressed by the founder of the Games, Baron de Coubertin, who said in 1908 on the occasion of the London Games: "The important thing is not to win, but to take part".