(Los Angeles) American gymnast Sunisa Lee, an Olympic gold medalist this summer in Tokyo, revealed that she was recently pepper sprayed with what she described as a racist anti-Asian assault in Los Angeles, in an interview with the media PopSugar.
In this interview published on Wednesday, Lee explained that she and friends were waiting for an Uber when a car drove past them. Her occupants shouted racist slurs and she was sprayed with pepper spray on her arm.
“I was so angry, but there was nothing I could do or control because they spun,” said the 18-year-old who is of Hmong (South Asian) origin.
“I didn’t do anything to them, it’s so hard because I didn’t want to do anything that could get me into trouble. I just let it go, ”she lamented.
Lee captured Olympic gold in the all-around at the Tokyo Games, as well as silver in the team competition and bronze in the individual on uneven bars.
The United States has seen an upsurge in violence targeting people of Asian descent in 2020, according to FBI statistics, with some activists believing it to be the result of rhetoric employed by former President Donald Trump, who said of COVID-19 that it was the “Chinese virus”.
Lee is not the first athlete to fall victim to anti-Asian racism.
In April, Sakura Kokumai, a Japanese American engaged in the Olympic karate tournament, said she was targeted while training in a park in California by a man who used racist slurs.
Olympic snowboarding champion Chloe Kim said in April that she received racist slurs on social media every day.