ABC "Dancing With the Stars"
Olympic gold medalist and current contestant on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” contestant Suni Lee said she was pepper-sprayed in a racist incident in Los Angeles while she was out with her friends.
Lee was the first Hmong American to participate in an Olympic Games, and she was also the first to win a gold medal. She is currently living in LA on her own because of her time on “Dancing With the Stars.”
Lee described that she still experiences racism, and she opened up in an interview with PopSugar about one particular experience.
Lee Says She Was Pepper-Sprayed And Had Racist Things Yelled At Her
Lee talked in the interview about a time recently when she was waiting for an Uber with her friends, who are all of Asian descent, according to the interview, a group of people drove by and yelled racist slurs at the group of women, saying “ching chong” telling them to “go back to where they came from.”
Lee added that the attack did not end with the verbal assault. Instead, a passenger sprayed her arm with pepper spray while the car drove by. She said that she didn’t know what to do after the attack.
“I was so mad, but there was nothing I could do or control because they skirted off,” she shared. “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.”
She added, “I just let it happen.”
The Olympic gymnast later told CNN that this happened to her in October 2021.
Could Lee Win ‘Dancing With the Stars’?
Season 30 of “Dancing With the Stars” is set to wrap on Monday, November 22, 2021, but Lee still needs to survive one more double elimination to make it through to the finale and then secure enough votes from viewers to take home the overall title.
She and her partner, Sasha Farber, have only been in the bottom two on the show one time, and there are only two couples who have escaped the bottom two in the whole competition, meaning it’s pretty equal ground for everyone left on the playing field.
Still, to win, she’ll have to beat huge vote-getter Iman Shumpert and Daniella Karagach, Peloton instructor Cody Rigsby and partner Cheryl Burke, “The Talk” cohost Amanda Kloots and partner Alan Bersten, teen star JoJo Siwa and partner Jenna Johnson and actress Melora Hardin and her partner Artem Chigvintsev. Chigvintsev is the reigning champion of “Dancing With the Stars,” so it’s possible he’ll pull away with the win once again.
According to a press release, Lee will be dancing two dances on the semi-finals episode, which will air on Monday, November 15.
She’ll be performing a redemption Foxtrot to “Haven’t Met You Yet” by Michael Bublé, and she’ll finally take on the contemporary category to the song “Gravity” by Sara Bareilles. That last dance could be what she needs to make it through to the finale.
“Dancing With the Stars” airs on Mondays at 8 p.m. Eastern (live) and Pacific (recorded) on ABC.
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