OMG I cannot believe that in 2023 in Ireland in a childrens gymnastic event where all the children in this beautiful little girls team got a medal for competing she was ignored and walked past by the presenter. You can see in the video attached that she is so excited to get this medal to no doubt show her family and friends when she got home … only to be excluded because of her skin colour. Truly it is so heartbreaking and egregious that any human being could be so cold and heartless when we try so hard to teach our kids to be ‘good sports’ and its ‘not all about winning’ when adults have such disrespect… I so want to give this beautiful little girl a hug and apologise for the hurt and pathos she must have felt being singled out in front of everyone … I hope Presenter is stood down and made accountable and set to scrubbing the toilets instead… ! Really made me want to say the naughty F word … Gymnastics Ireland apologizes for 'racism' after viral video showed young black girl being skipped during medal ceremony and sparked outrage from critics including US Olympic champion Simone Biles | Daily Mail Online
Completely agree
Cannot actually get my head around this. It’s an absolute disgrace. That poor little girl.
Horrible and shameful 
If you don’t want to read the story on the Mail, here’s Al Jazeera’s take
I came to this late, so have nothing to say about the initial snub, or how it happened. Instead what I find bizarre is that apparently the snubbee wrote a personal apology to the little girl’s family the following day, but sent it via the Ireland Gymnastic Association, who didn’t forward it to the family.
I’m not apologising or making any excuses for what happened, but I also wonder if the DM would have run the story a year after the event if it had been an English rather than an Irish athletics association
There is no doubt that this is shameful and as I understand, not yet adequately addressed and publicly apologised for.
However, that this is blowing up on social media, and only taken up by tabloids because they parasite social media, is possibly a bigger picture.
Fanning social discontent and creating division seems to be a growing trend. Without the cringe inducing video, a text description alone may not have had nearly so much currency. So, what we should possibly also consider is who dug out this video and why now?
The Irish have had a lot to say over years about discrimination and perhaps they should look in their own back yard first.
That would be my take as well. Even if the person handing out the medals was deeply racist and deliberately missed this young girl for that reason - surely she would realise it would land on her like a ton of bricks.
I had no idea this article was a year old when I posted it as it came up in that days feed … but whethr it happened a year ago or not I missed hearing about it then so giving it a voice was the only way I felt I could assist this young child to have a voice … I read in the Irish Times that the parents were taking it further so not sure how it played out … I just wish we were all kinder to each other I dont know why skin colour makes us different we all children of the universe and deserve to be loved equally without this discrimination and superiority …
100%!! I totally agree.
Apart from my concerns about who in UK, or indeed elsewhere, may be pushing an agenda to break down our society, the video does truly show an utterly brazen display.
The ‘trial by social media’, only barely informed as it is, does make me wonder if it is entire Irish athletics or just this specific woman handing out the medals who is responsible? Seems so openly callous. A mistake due to her having cataracts perhaps?
I can only hope the public reaction goes some way towards preventing any and all future public display of racism. It is important not to normalise such behaviour.
There is also the possibility that this was a genuine mistake. What I noticed from the video is that the girl was not standing directly in line with the other medal recipients, she was standing slightly behind them. Perhaps the medal-giver genuinely didn’t realise she was to receive a medal.
It’s just more culture wars nonsense, I think.
The idea that someone giving out medals would deliberately refuse to give a medal to a child because she was black is so inherently implausible as to be incredible.
But it sells newspapers, doesn’t it?
My thoughts exactly! It was so blatant, how could she not have thought there would be consequences!?
Which opens up the possibility that it was a mistake rather than deliberate.
A mistake or not, and I’m sure it must surely have been that, the memory remains as a dreadful hurt for the little girl.
I do see why this gains traction because unfortunately, black and minority people are often, still, on the rough receiving end of intentional slights.
Agree @Susannah but I am quite sure it was a genuine mistake and nothing more. I’m not convinced either that the little girl would have been so hurt by it in terms of any suggestions of racism. More that she was just left out, if she even felt that? She’s just a girl and wanted her medal, not sure she sees herself as black or anything else, just an athlete. Maybe the adults are getting ourselves in a twist over this and seeing more than what actually happened?
I don’t like the title given to this thread. This story is about an individual act of racist behaviour … not about racism in general as practiced in Ireland.
I don’t think that I, or any other Irish person I know … or for that matter 99.9% of Irish citizens would condone this sort of action, if indeed it was a genuine racist act and not a mistake.
I agree. Additionally I’m not sure it was racist anyway.
I agree. Offensive thread title . . . .