Picture Credit: Twitter
In viral video, Gymnastics Ireland founded themselves amidst of a racism controversy as the medal presenter skipper a black girl during the medal ceremony. The incident which dates back to March 2022, saw medal being awarded to the winners, who were standing in a line to receive their recognition at an event, however a black-skinned girl was left while all the others received their medal.
While the video is more than a year old from the GymSTART event, it was put back into the limelight as girl’s parents claimed that the sporting body - Gymnastics Ireland had not issued an apology. However, just days ago the official gymnastics body f Ireland on approaching the official concerned and part of this incident accepted this incident as unintentional and clarified that the mistake was rectified immediately, and the competitor was presented the medal.
Watch the video here:
However, the Gymnastics Ireland have finally issued a written apology in this matter now in a statement which read, “On behalf of the Board and staff of Gymnastics Ireland we would like to unreservedly apologise to gymnast and her family for the upset that has been caused by the incident at the GymStart event in March 2022.
Additionally, the video also got the attention of one of the most reckoned gymnasts, Simone Biles. While resharing the video, Biles commented, “when this video was circulating, her parents reached out. It broke my heart to see, so I sent her a little video.”
The American Olympic athlete returned to gymnastics in style with her signature move in August 2023.
