The attention of sports stars around the world, including four-time Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, have been drawn to a medal presentation in Dublin, where a little girl was overlooked by officials.
A video of the girl, who was the only child of obvious African Negro descent in the line of young gymnasts, being overlooked as all of the rest of her peers received medals, has been viewed by millions of people online.
Biles, who said the video broke her heart, said she sent the girl a video message to offer encouragement, adding that “there is no room for racism in any sport or at all.”
Biles’ teammate and Olympic silver teammate medalist, Jordan Chiles described the incident as “beyond hurtful on so many levels”.
The girl has since received a written apology from gymnastics Ireland after her parent’s alleged racist behaviour by the official who left her out of a medal ceremony more than a year ago.
Following recent backlash, gymnastics Ireland said it received a complaint from the girl’s parents following the incident, alleging racist behaviour and that it “engaged immediately” with the official in question.
“Initially we attempted to address the matter through the informal process of our discipline and complaints policy, however, following a series of communications with the parents they informed gymnastics Ireland that they would not be engaging in the process and were seeking legal advice.” the statement read in part
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