Ezra Shaw/Getty Images/File
Simone Biles warms up before the fourth day of the U.S. Gymnastics Championships in San Jose, California, last month.
CNN –
Four-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles said it “broke my heart” when she saw a young black girl being passed over to win a medal at a gymnastics ceremony in Ireland. The footage of this went viral.
In the video of a March 2022 GymStart event that has been circulating on social media in recent days, a number of girls are presented with medals, but the only Black girl is not presented with any.
“When this video made the rounds, her parents came forward,” Biles said on X, formerly Twitter. “It broke my heart to see that, so I sent her a little video. There is no place for racism, no matter what sport.”
In a statement released on Friday, Gymnastics Ireland said it received a complaint alleging racist behavior from a parent following the event and a resolution was found in August this year.
“The officer in question fully accepted that what had happened was unacceptable, but stressed that it was not intentional,” the statement said.
“The official concerned said that after realizing the error, he immediately corrected it and ensured that the participant in question was presented with her medal before she left the field.”
The statement added that the official expressed “deep regret” over what she described as an “honest mistake” and that a request to personally apologize to the participant and her family was initially rejected .
“A written apology from the identified person has now been sent to the participant and her family,” the statement said.
Speaking anonymously to The Irish Independent last week, the mother said the complaint had not been resolved and the apology was not “genuine”.
“We are often the only black family at gymnastics events and that hurt us a lot,” the mother is quoted as saying in the story. “Eight million people have now seen the video. From Pakistan to Ethiopia they can see this was wrong but Gymnastics Ireland still cannot accept it and apologize.”
At the time of writing, footage of the incident has been viewed more than 40 million times on X.
In a statement sent to CNN on Monday, Gymnastics Ireland said: “We would like to unreservedly apologize to the gymnast and her family for the upset caused by the incident at the GymStart event in March 2022.”
“What happened that day should not have happened and we are deeply sorry. We are also sorry that what has happened since that date has caused further upset.”
The statement, which did not acknowledge the mother’s comments to the Irish Independent, also said the gymnast continued to take part in Gymnastics Ireland events and the organization was “looking”.[s] I look forward to welcoming them back at our future events.”