U.S. gymnast Sunisa Lee, who won a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics this year, says she was pepper sprayed in a racist attack in L.A. last month.
Olympic gold medalist Suni Lee said she was pepper sprayed in a racist attack last month in Los Angeles. In a recent interview with PopSugar, the gymnast said she was attacked while she and her girlfriends — all of Asian descent — were waiting for a ride. A group in a car speeding by started yelling racist slurs and a passenger sprayed Lee’s arm with pepper spray, she said. “I was so mad, but there was nothing I could do or control because they skirted off,” Lee told the magazine. “I didn’t do anything to them, and having the reputation, it’s so hard because I didn’t want to do anything that could get me into trouble. I just let it happen.” As the first Hmong American to represent the U.S. in the Olympics, the 18-year-old Lee astounded the world by winning a gold medal in the women’s all-around competition during the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo.
