Gymnastics racism incident in Ireland: What happened, who was involved, how did Gymnastics Ireland react, what has been said?

On Monday, a video of Gymnastics Ireland's racism incident circulated across social media, gaining raging reactions from viewers. It showed a little black girl being snubbed of a medal at the GymStart event in Dublin in March 2022.

The year-old video recently gained serious attention from the sports world, compelling the organization to apologize to the victim and her family. Social media users criticized Gymnastics Ireland for promoting racism in their event and also for their lack of courtesy in owing an apology to the 10-year-old last year, when the incident happened.

More so, the criticism gained impetus when reputed gymnasts like Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles also reacted to the incident.

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What happened in the video?

In the X (formerly known as Twitter) video, a bunch of young gymnasts were seen standing in a straight line. One of the officials from Gymnastics Ireland was responsible for congratulating the participants along with providing medals to each of them.

However, when it was the black girl’s turn to receive the medal, the representative ignored her and moved to the following gymnast standing beside her.

The video clearly showed the little girl’s face dropping in disappointment upon not receiving the medal. As the video circulated on X after a year, it created a serious controversy giving a blow to racism.

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Did Gymnastics Ireland react to the controversy?

After the footage of the medal controversy gained momentum on the internet, Gymnastics Ireland issued an apology to the girl and her family on their official website.

The apology note read:

"On behalf of the Board and staff of Gymnastics Ireland, we would like to unreservedly apologise to the gymnast and her family for the upset that has been caused by the incident."

Furthermore, it mentioned,

"What happened on the day should not have happened and for that, we are deeply sorry."

The organization added that they have been putting efforts to resolve the sensitive matter with the ‘best of intentions.’ They also provided an in-person apology to the gymnast and her family to best deal with the issue. Moreover, the organization ensured that similar incidents shall never be repeated.

They also mentioned the appointment of an independent expert to review the organization's policies and procedures earlier this year. The organization also expressed their intention to welcome the gymnast's family and Sport Against Racism Ireland (SARI) to further provide suggestions in the procedure.

Lastly, they reckoned that they do not support racism in any form and were hopeful of the little girl continuing to participate in events organized by Gymnastics Ireland.

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Mother of the little girl slammed Gymnastics Ireland for their apology

The little girl's mother (Image via BBC)

In a recent interview with BBC, the little girl’s mother expressed that watching her daughter being denied a medal was ‘unbelievable’. She shared that she had emailed Gymnastics Ireland the following day in 2022 to get an apology.

The governing body later transferred the issue to the Sports Dispute Solution Ireland which sent both the parties into mediation and had agreed to a resolution by August 2023.

Moreover, according to Gymnastics Ireland, in 2022, they had identified the official responsible for the alleged racial discrimination and also sent a written apology to the little girl and her family.

However, the family revealed to BBC that they never received an apology. The mother stated in the interview that after failed trials of receiving a proper apology, she found Gymnastics Ireland’s recent apology on their website a ‘useless’ one. The little girl's family feels that the apology has now been issued because of media pressure. She told in the interview,

"[The apology is] almost useless," she said.

"There was no empathy shown, I feel like it's not true.”

She also added,

"It's been 18 months and it seems like they were pressured to give me an apology,” the mother added.

"I cried for so long and then millions of people cried with me before I could get this."

Furthermore, the family also wished that no other black kid has to go through any such racist incidents.