Snowboarder Chloe Kim, 21, a Korean-American and gold medalist at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, said she was suffering from Asian hate crimes.
Kim said in an interview with the US sports media ESPN on the 2nd (local time), “Just because I am a professional athlete and won the Olympics does not mean I am exempt from racism.” “I receive hundreds of hate messages every month (from social media). . I see about 30 a day.”
On the 31st of last month, Kim captured and uploaded a direct message (DM) that he had received on his Instagram. The message contained racist content such as “stupid Asian” or sexual harassment. “I get hundreds of messages like this,” Kim said. It hurts people to think that this behavior is okay.”
Kim said she had suffered racism on social media from the time she won her first medal (silver medal in the half-pipe sport) at the 2014 X Games in Aspen, Colorado, USA. After the contest was over, when I posted a picture of the medal on Instagram, I told Kim, “Go back to China. Messages such as don’t take away the medals of white American players on the same team were poured out.
Kim, who was 13 at the time, spoke fluent Korean, but confessed that she had not spoken Korean with her parents in public after receiving the hate message. Kim said, “I hated and embarrassed that I was Asian. But I learned how to overcome those feelings, and I’m really proud to be an Asian now.”
Even after Kim became the world’s strongest in the snowboarding sport, hatred poured out. Some even spit on Kim in public. “People underestimate my achievements because I am Asian,” Kim said.
Kim said, “Racism has intensified since Corona 19,” and “When I tried to get on the elevator in the apartment, a woman shouted’I can’t get in here.’” Kim said he was concerned about safety whenever he left the house. “Unless the appointment place is crowded with people, I don’t have it anywhere alone. When I take my dog for a walk or go to the grocery store, I wear a bag of tasers, pepper sprays, and knives, and I never take my hand off the bag.”
Kim said that he had responded to the interview because he thought he should not be silent anymore. He said he hoped that his case would serve as an opportunity to inform the seriousness of hate crimes for Asian Americans.