Suni Lee is recounting a scary experience that went down just weeks after she won gold the Olympics.
The 18-year-old gymnast says she was getting ready for a night out with friends with they became the target of an anti-Asian attack.
Suni explained that she and a group of girlfriends, who were all Asian, were simply waiting for their Uber when they were approached.
Suddenly, a car sped by with rowdy passengers who were shouting racist slurs and insisting they "go back to where they came from."
At one point, Suni says she her arm was hit with a blast of pepper spray from one of the passengers.
"I was so mad, but there was nothing I could do or control because they skirted off," Suni told PopSugar.
She continued, "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."
Unfortunately, Suni is one of many Asian Americans who have reported experiencing racist attacks over the past year.
According to FBI data that was released in October, anti-Asian hate crimes rose more than 73 percent in 2020 alone.
You can learn what you can do to to help the Asian community here.