A video that was taken at a medal presentation at a Gymstart event in Dublin in March 2022 and uploaded to social media over the weekend has gone viral. The video shows a group of young gymnasts waiting in line for their rewards, but the athlete in question does not get any of them.
A social media frenzy was ignited as a result of the occurrence, and Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles joined in on the conversation.
One person on X remarked, “I would love to see @Simone_Biles reach out to this girl if she’s able,” and the user was referring to Simone Biles.
“Her parents reached out to me after this video gained widespread attention,” Biles said. It broke my heart to see this, so I decided to share a video with her.
“Racism has absolutely no place in any sport or anywhere in society!!!!”
Another American gymnast by the name of Jordan Chiles has spoken out against the competition, which she referred to as “hurtful on so many levels” in her commentary.
“Gymternet, if you could just help me find this youngster, I would really appreciate it… This is very terrible on a variety of different levels; I need you to please find her…On Friday, the Olympic athlete said on her X account that she will provide an update “as soon as it is possible.”
On Friday, a statement was released by Gymnastics Ireland about the situation.
According to a statement released by the organization, “Gymnastics Ireland immediately contacted the family to express its regrets and to reassure them that the incident would be investigated.”
“… The relevant official admitted that what had taken place was bad but emphasized that it had yet to be done on purpose. The appropriate official said that as soon as they became aware of the mistake, they took immediate action to fix it and made certain that the competitor in issue was presented with her medal before leaving the Field of Play (FoP).
In the statement, it is said that the official “expressed deep regret for what they described as an honest error.”
“A written apology provided by the identified individual has since been issued to the competitor and her family,” added the statement.
Both Gymnastics Ireland and the Gymnastics Ethics Foundation (GEF) have been in contact with one another. According to a statement made by Gymnastics Ireland,
“We remained engaged with the GEF throughout the autumn and winter months, during which time our internal process was suspended.” In February, we concluded that it was best to keep our investigation in-house and proceed to the next stage of our method.
