US Olympic champion Suni Lee has revealed she has been on the receiving end of a racially motivated pepper-spray attack in Los Angeles.
Lee was "so mad" at the situation but wasn't able to defend herself because of her reputation and didn't want to do anything that would get her in trouble.
In October, the Olympic champion was waiting for an Uber with her friends - all of Asian descent - when a car pulled up and told them to "go back to where they came from".
After the racial taunt, Lee was sprayed in the arm with pepper spray before the car took off.
"I was so mad, but there was nothing I could do or control because they skirted off," she told Pop Sugar.
"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."
Lee won a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in the all-around gymnastics event and bronze in the uneven bars.
She also made history by just attending the Games by becoming the first US Olympic athlete from the Hmong ethnic group.
America has seen a spike of attacks on Asian Americans with Stop AAPI Hate - a nonprofit group that tracks hate or discrimination incidents against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders - saying there has been a record increase in the last 12 months.
From March 2020 to February 2021, there have been 3800 incidents, jumping from 2600 the year before.
