Gymnastics Ireland in Racism row

[Puffin]

Gymnastics Ireland have finally decided that an apology might be necessary to the sole black gymnast who was skipped in a line receiving medals - after 1½ years of denying that it had anything to do with them, refusing to participate in FIG mediation and also 1½ years of supressing the letter of apology that the official concerned wrote to the gymnast in March 2022, But Simone tweeting about the incident seems to have galvanised Gymnastics Ireland to act.

Gymnastics Ireland fails to apologise despite row over medal snub for black girl

Governing body suppressed personal apology from judge in question following incident 18 months ago

www.theguardian.com

 

[Beamer]

One tweet from Simone can cure cancer.

 

[MaryClare]

According to the girl’s family, Simone sent her a video last year

 

[Sasha]

Sheesh, I didn’t realise this occurred so long ago! It’s one thing to fuck up, another to double down over it…

 

[JaJa]

Beyond despicable. There should be some serious consequences all around.

 

[MrSixkiller]

For sure, but it’s really sad that it falls upon her shoulders to force the world to make this right.

The federation shouldn’t have had to be admonished by the greatest gymnast of all time to see how much they fucked up.

 

[brg09]

Agreed. At some point it’s better to just admit you’re wrong and move on, rather than insisting and looking stupid.

 

[Seyonne]

I don’t understand how this was done in error. Did she not see her? Thought she was an interloper? This could have been a mistake. We all have brain farts, but the little girl was standing right there. I also have a hard time seeing this being done purposefully. Little upside to publicly snubbing a child. I just don’t get what happened.

 

[MaryClare]

Racists get a kick out of it. It’s the same as someone being deliberately disrespectful towards certain customers

 

[JaJa]

I don’t understand how this was done in error. Did she not see her?

It was not done in error. Of course she saw her.

 

[Petra]

This video is edited.

You can look at this thread on Reddit in the Ireland section where some reasonable people offered a simple explanation.



The child placed on the “Winner’s Podium” and was due to get that medal. She was in the line-up to get what is known as a “Participation Medal”. There was some confusion, the mistake was corrected later. There is a video of that on the gymnastics Ireland website.

The little girl was then photographed on the podium smiling with both medals. Click on the link below.

https://preview.redd.it/a0pyvpxe9sqb1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bfbc83e7a67ffb179dd91e460f256eff252f3508

This really is much ado about nothing. It’s nothing to do with race.

It wouldn’t even be an issue if the kid was white. The mother of the child kept this going for a year and a half!!!

The Guardian reporting is one-sided and Gym Ireland is a small organisation who doesn’t have much funding. So the mother of the child in question is looking for compensation/money from an under-funded sports club.

There is no “systemic racism” in sport in Ireland. To even suggest such a thing is racist but against the Irish.

 

[Sasha]

I read on Twitter that she won the competition and the person handing out the medals didn’t realise she was supposed to get a participant medal as well as the trophy. That said, I’m not sure why the issue would have stretched out over such a long timeframe if it was that simple, so take that with a grain of salt. Maybe it’s true, but i can’t imagine that it’s the whole story.

 

[MaryClare]

Have the family requested that the video be removed from social media?

 

[lovegymnasts]

Yet there was no mention that the kids who placed second and third were also skipped. Nor, were there three extra medals in her hand at the end, only one.

 

[Petra]

There is a longer version of the video.

Whoever edited it to look like it was racist was sh*t stirring.

The mother of the child kept this up for a year and a half. She has an agenda … ££££££ $$$$$$$$$.

There is no way this video just happened to appear on the internet all of a sudden in it’s edited format.

It was deliberately designed to appear racist with a smear PR /media campaign inciting a mob mentality.

Very hyprocritical of the mother to NOW ask that the video be taken down.

Guardian should also be taken to task for very biased reporting.

 

[JaJa]

This really is much ado about nothing. It’s nothing to do with race.

It wouldn’t even be an issue if the kid was white. The mother of the child kept this going for a year and a half!!!

The Guardian reporting is one-sided and Gym Ireland is a small organisation who doesn’t have much funding. So the mother of the child in question is looking for compensation/money from an under-funded sports club.

There is no “systemic racism” in sport in Ireland. To even suggest such a thing is racist but against the Irish.

So how come Gymnastics Ireland issued an apology??

Gymnastics Ireland issues 'unreserved' apology for Black gymnast medal snub

Ireland’s gymnastics federation has issued an apology after footage emerged of a young Black gymnast being passed over for a medal at a presentation ceremony.

abcnews.go.com

 

[Puffin]

I really don’t understand why Gymnastics Ireland did not forward the long letter the judge wrote shortly after the event in March 2022 and why Gymnastics Ireland didn’t turn up to FIG organised mediation saying it was a private issue between the family and the judge - in fact it was only at the mediation in August 2023 that the parents found out that the apology letter existed - 1½ years later.

If the full video hadn’t leaked Gymnastics Ireland would have done nothing - so they didn’t really cover themselves in glory

 

[Puffin]

There is a longer version of the video.

Whoever edited it to look like it was racist was sh*t stirring.

The mother of the child kept this up for a year and a half. She has an agenda … ££££££ $$$$$$$$$.

There is no way this video just happened to appear on the internet all of a sudden in it’s edited format.

It was deliberately designed to appear racist with a smear PR /media campaign inciting a mob mentality.

Very hyprocritical of the mother to NOW ask that the video be taken down.

Guardian should also be taken to task for very biased reporting.

So the only black gymnast in the competition gets “accidently” overlooked - the video emerged just a few weeks after Gymnastics Ireland failed to turn up to the mediation in August 2023 and the family discover that Gymnastics Ireland “accidently” failed to send the judge’s letter, written to them in March 2022.

So many accidents … :roll_eyes:

 

[Petra]

Huge pressure from the media, vicious online mob etc.

Gym Ireland doesn’t have much funding and probably didn’t have good legal counsel.

 

[Petra]

The mother allegedly refused to meet the official when offered.

There is more to this story than is now known.

If the mother really cared about her kid and privacy then how did the video end up on the internet?

Explain the “systemic racism”?