Footage has surfaced of a young Black gymnast appearing to be missed during a medal ceremony in Ireland.
The incident occurred at an event in Dublin in March 2022 and in the video, which has been viewed millions of times in recent days, a judge handed out participation awards to a line of children but ignored the Black child, appearing to speak to her before moving on without offering a medal.
Four-time Olympic champion Simone Biles says the incident “broke my heart”.
The child’s mother, speaking anonymously, has said she believes Gymnastics Ireland has failed to publicly apologise for the incident.
The body has issued a statement saying they received a complaint alleging racist behaviour from the parents of the girl.
“We are aware of a video that has been posted on social media relating to an incident that took place over 18 months ago at a GymSTART event in March 2022 for which we received a complaint from the parents of one of our members,” it read.
“Subsequently both parties agreed to enter mediation which was independently facilitated by Sports Disputes Solutions Ireland as per our policy/procedure which led to a resolution agreed by both parties in August 2023.
“The official in question accepted fully that what had happened had not been acceptable but stressed that it had not been intentional.”
