Gymnastics Ireland has been through a tough year in relation to an incident that impacted a child at a Gymstart event in March 2022.
This morning the National Governing Body issued a statement in relation to a heightened awareness of the incident prompted by the sharing of video content and comment by Simone Biles.
On behalf of the Board and staff of Gymnastics Ireland we would like to unreservedly apologise to the gymnast and her family for the upset that has been caused by the incident at the GymStart event in March 2022.
What happened on the day should not have happened and for that we are deeply sorry.
We are also sorry that what has happened since that date has caused further upset.
Please know that at all times we have been acting in good faith and with the best of intentions in trying to resolve this very difficult and sensitive matter. We offered an in-person apology after the incident as we believed this was the best approach.
Subsequently, we felt mediation was the best way forward.
We know now we need to do more. We are committed to ensuring nothing like this will happen again. We appointed an independent expert to review our policies and procedures earlier this year and a series of recommendations have resulted which we are fully committed to implementing so that this does not ever happen again.
We would also like to engage with the gymnast’s family and Sport Against Racism Ireland (SARI) to listen to any suggestions they have as to how our procedures can be improved in this regard.
We are happy to see that the gymnast continues to participate in Gymnastics Ireland events and we look forward to welcoming her back to our future events also.
Finally, we would like to make it absolutely clear that Gymnastics Ireland condemns any form of racism whatsoever
This was clearly an incident that regardless of intent or oversight caused real distress to the child and their family.
Trying to do the right thing to make it right can be challenging with lots of different voices and the importance of maintaining the safety of the child at the heart of it.
Sometimes offence can be seen with total clarity, sometimes it is more difficult to determine if it was intentional or not.
Often though the impact on the person affected can be incredibly hard regardless.
Gymnastics Ireland is right to say that they need to do more, not as a result of publicity 18 months after the event but arising from reviews and recommendations that were undertaken much closer to the incident.
Working with the family and Sari to sense check what improvements are being made is important, as is the fact that the child remains competing within the sport.
