Olympic gold medalist Suni Lee says she was pepper-sprayed in racist attack
Team USA's Sunisa Lee with her gold medal after winning the Women's All-Around Final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, in July. Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images
American Olympic gold medalist Sunisa "Suni" Lee revealed this week that she was pepper-sprayed in a racist attack in Los Angeles.
Details: Lee, the first Hmong American to compete at the Olympics, told PopSugar in an interview published Wednesday that a group in a car told the 18-year-old gymnast and her friends, all of Asian descent, to "go back to where they came from" and shouted other racist slurs at them as they waited for an Uber.
- Someone sprayed Lee's arm with pepper spray before the car drove off, she told the magazine.
- "I was so mad, but there was nothing I could do or control because they skirted off," said Lee, who's in LA to take part in "Dancing With the Stars."
The big picture: There's been a surge in anti-Asian hate crimes in the U.S. since the pandemic began.
- Asian Americans have launched a series of safety campaigns in response, including daily patrols, self-defense programs and personal alarm distribution, Axios' Shawna Chen notes.
Go deeper: FBI report shows hate crimes at highest level in 20 years