How a young black gymnast in Ireland got an apology
racism gets called out
As the year 2023 draws to a close, I wanted to highlight one story that stood out to me this year. It is a story of a little girl who worked hard to become a great gymnast. But a tiny incident in front a large audience made her helpless and angry. This story does have a happy ending. Read on, and let me know if you enjoyed this week’s ‘Lighter Side’.
It was March 2022. A large crowd was milling around a stadium in Ireland. Young kids, tweens, teens, parents and teachers were seated in the audience. They were cheering for the young gymnasts in the centre of the stadium. If you were there in the audience, you would see a row of smiling faces. If you were one of the kids waiting to get a medal, you too would be grinning a mile from one end of your cheek to another.
The music started. A drumroll followed. The judge began handing out medals to the children. She stopped in front of each child, smiled at them, put in a word of encouragement and then handed them their medals. She kept moving from one child to another. As she reached in front of one little girl, she turned away and moved to the next child. This little girl was not going to be given her medal. All because she had black skin. Or, as some say, she is a black girl. The judge did not want to cheer, appreciate and award a medal to a black girl. The white gymnasts got theirs. The little black gymnast stood there in the middle of the stadium - helpless and angered by her situation.
She stood silently and walked away at the end of the ceremony. When she reached her parents, she hugged them and cried. She began to wonder why having a black skin colour was so sinful.
Her parents were not going to take this lying down. They wrote to ‘Gymnastics Ireland’, the organisation that had conducted the event, for an unqualified apology. Nothing happened. Nobody responded. Nobody wanted to take responsibility. They pretended like nothing wrong had taken place. A full year went by.
The young gymnast’s parents decided to put further pressure on the gymnastics institution. They released the video containing the judge’s behaviour to the rest of the world, on social media. Soon, thousands of viewers began calling for an apology from the judge and the organisation for such racist behaviour. It was August 2023. Still no word from Gymnastics Ireland.
The girl’s mother then wrote a personal note to Simon Biles. Simon is one of the world’s greatest gymnasts. She hails from the USA. She is a 4-time Olympic gold medal winner. She is also black. When Simon saw the video, she was so moved that she personally tweeted against this act of racism. Simon also went a step ahead and sent a personal video message to the little girl - telling her that racism had no place whatsoever in any sport. Needless to say, the little girl was jumping with joy when she saw this (imagine getting a personal message from Virat Kohli if you loved cricket :)
Millions more had viewed this video by Sep 2023. Simon Biles had also written on a social media platform openly condemning this behaviour.
Finally, a full 18-months after this incident happened, ‘Gymnastics Ireland’ issued an apology to the girl and her parents, saying ‘we are sorry that such an incident took place and this should have never happened’.
This story stood out in my mind as one of the rare instances of social media bringing justice to people. No matter how right the black gymnast may have been in demanding this apology, it may not have been possible to get this without the help of the millions of viewers. It is a rare positive I admit, yet, I am happy to celebrate this achievement! Yayy!
In the meanwhile, if you want to get a quick heads-up on ‘One big happy science discovery’ and ‘One happy piece of tech for kids’, in 2023, click on the button ‘Science and Tech stories’ below. It leads to a podcast episode with a 11-year old Agastya and 10-year old Kiaansh. Both are funny and nerdy!