After a year-and-a-half-old video recently went viral of a Black child being ignored during a medal ceremony in Ireland, its governing body has finally issued an apology.
In the now-viral footage, a judge ignores the only Black girl while medals are being handed out. The incident occurred in March 2022 and was so infuriating, U.S. Olympic champion spoke out about the judge passing by the Black gymnast.
“When this video was circulating, her parents reached out. It broke my heart to see, so I sent her a little video—there is no room for racism in any sport or at all!!!!” Biles wrote on X/Twitter. The judge hasn’t been publicly identified.
Gymnastics Ireland wrote:
“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 at the GymStart event in March 2022. What happened on the day should not have happened and for that we are deeply sorry. We are also sorry that what has happened since that date has caused further upset. Please know that at all times we have been acting in good faith and with the best of intentions in trying to resolve this very difficult and sensitive matter. We offered an in-person apology after the incident as we believed this was the best approach. Subsequently we felt mediation was the best way forward.”
The statement continued:
“We know now we need to do more. We are committed to ensuring nothing like this will happen again. We appointed an independent expert to review our policies and procedures earlier this year and a series of recommendations have resulted which we are fully committed to implementing so that this does not ever happen again. We would also like to engage with the gymnast’s family and Sport Against Racism Ireland (SARI) to listen to any suggestions they have as to how our procedures can be improved in this regard.”
The statement also said that the Black gymnast continues to participate in Gymnastics Ireland events and that they do not condone “any form of racism whatsoever.” However, it shouldn’t have taken a viral video for the wrongdoing to be recognized.