Family of Snubbed Black Gymnast Hits Back at Organization’s Half-Assed Apology

The family of a young Black gymnast has slammed the sport’s governing body in Ireland for offering a weak apology after the girl was snubbed at a medal ceremony in a viral incident that has since prompted stars Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles to weigh in.

A video, which was taken during the March 2022 ceremony but resurfaced recently and went viral over the weekend, showed an official clearly bypassing the only Black girl while handing out medals, leaving the girl looking confused and embarrassed.

Gymnastics Ireland issued a statement on Friday saying the organization had settled the issue via mediation with the girl’s parents last month. The organization claimed it had “immediately” contacted the family back in March 2022 to “express concern and reassure them that the matter was being investigated.”

The statement also said that the Gymnastics Ireland official who had snubbed the girl “accepted fully that what had happened had not been acceptable but stressed that it had not been intentional” and gave the girl the medal she deserved after the event. The official “expressed deep regret” for the “honest error,” and had asked for permission to apologize to the girl and her family in person, which was initially declined.

Gymnastics Ireland didn’t apologize itself in the statement but claimed, “A written apology provided by the identified individual has since been issued to the competitor and her family.”

In a subsequent statement on Sunday, the organization raged at unnamed individuals for incorrectly speculating about the involvement of international gymnastics judge Mairead Kavanagh, even saying that Irish police had been contacted over the “potentially defamatory” suggestion.

However, the girl’s mother told the Irish Independent on Sunday that they had not settled the issue through mediation as Gymnastics Ireland claimed. And the supposed “written apology” was a bland, one-line letter addressed to “whom it may concern.”

The family told the Irish Independent that they believe their daughter was snubbed because of racism and they want Gymnastics Ireland to issue a public apology. The girl’s mom said she had also reported the incident to the Gymnastics Ethics Foundation in Switzerland.

“We are often the only black family at gymnastics events and this has been very hurtful for us,” the mother told the outlet, saying she was now worried about her family’s safety from racist backlash.

She also asked Gymnastics Ireland to help take the video off social media.

“Now eight million people have seen the video,” she said. “From Pakistan to Ethiopia they can see this was wrong but Gymnastics Ireland still can’t accept it and say sorry.”

The video was reportedly shared privately with four-time Olympic champion Biles, who tweeted that the girl’s parents had reached out to her last year. “It broke my heart to see,” Biles wrote on Friday on social media, adding that she sent the girl a video message of encouragement. “There is no room for racism in any sport or at all.”

Biles’ teammate and Olympic silver medallist Jordan Chiles also asked social media users to “help me find this little girl” so she could provide some support. “This is beyond hurtful on so many levels,” she wrote.

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