Gymnastics star Simone Biles is reacting strongly to a video showing a black Irish girl not getting a medal after a competition.
“There is no place for racism in any sport,” writes the American on X.
Gymnastics star Simone Biles. Archive image.
The incident took place in Dublin in March 2022. However, a video from the awards ceremony, which shows all the children except the one black girl receiving a medal, has only now gone viral. The video has been seen by millions on social media and has received a lot of criticism.
“It breaks my heart to see this… There is no place for racism in any sport,” writes gymnastics star Simone Biles on X, formerly Twitter.
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“Extremely painful”
Biles is a four-time Olympic gold medalist with 19 World Cup gold medals to her credit. Her national team colleague, Olympic silver medalist Jordan Chiles, also reacts:
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“This is so incredibly painful in so many ways,” Chiles writes.
The incident already resonated when it happened 1.5 years ago and even then Biles reached out to the girl’s family with a private video message of her support.
The family have sought an apology from the Irish Gymnastics Federation, but to no avail. But an independent mediation has led to an agreement now being reached and the federation has come out with an apology from the woman who handed out the medals, writes the BBC.
Has been awarded a medal afterwards
According to The Guardian, the union believes that the incident is about a personal conflict between the family and the woman. But the girl’s mother tells the British newspaper that it is about racism.
– It is a systematic problem, because when the union does not distance itself from it, you show that you want it to continue, says the mother.
According to The Irish Independent, the mother is taking the matter to the International Gymnastics Federation’s Ethics Council.
The girl has subsequently received her participation medal.
2023-09-25 07:27:32
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