By Olaolu Fawole
A video showing a moment when a female sports official decided to racially discriminate a black girl, who was among medalists at a GymSTART tournament in Ireland has surfaced on social media.
The video which has gone viral on social media apps like Tiktok and X (formerly Twitter) has attracted thousands of comments worldwide.
In the video, the sports official was seen putting medals on the winners and decided to walk past the black girl and hung a medal on the next Gymnast, without giving the black Gymnast her medal.
Findings by Radio Nigeria show that racism has been an issue for immigrants in Ireland.
Meanwhile, Gymnastics Ireland, the body in charge of the tournament, in a reaction to the incident, said the identified sports official has apologised, describing it as ‘an honest error’.
In a statement on their website, https://www.gymnasticsireland.com, the body said the incident happened in March, 2022 and it was settled in August, 2023.
“We are aware of a video that has been posted on social media relating to an incident that took place over 18 months ago at a GymSTART event in March 2022 for which we received a complaint from the parents of one of our members. Subsequently both parties agreed to enter mediation which was independently facilitated by Sports Disputes Solutions Ireland as per our policy/procedure which led to a resolution agreed by both parties in August 2023″.
Radio Nigeria Ibadan gathered that a formal complaint has been lodged at the Police Station on Saturday.
According to the Founder of Laois Africa Support Group, a group of African Migrants in Ireland, Mr Bolaji Adeyanju, the case has been reported to the Police for further investigation.
“Case is now reported to the Garda, apparently they saw the videos too, however case was never reported and if no report they can’t t investigate. All racism must be reported so it can be followed up and added to issues migrants face. They are opening a formal investigation.Thank you everyone and let’s continue to fight racism and educate racists. I will update as I hear anything back”.
Also, despite the statement from Gymnastics Ireland, Netizens have called for prosecution of the female sports official and expressed shock to the approach of Gymnastics Ireland on the matter.
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