Asian-American athletes affirms to fight increasing racism and represent US at Olympics

Anti-Asian hate crimes have drastically increased. Social media is flushed with devastating videos of Anti-Asian hate crimes. People are being hit and harassed in broad daylight.

Some US Olympic hopefuls are denouncing rising anti-Asian violence in their homeland. Violence against people of Asian descent has surged since the start of the pandemic. Among those who are speaking about this grave concern are gymnast Yul Moldauer and Japanese-American Karate athlete Sakura Kokumai. To raise awareness, they shared their personal experience with racism.

Gymnast Yul Moldauer shared his experience by stating that in the month of March 2021, at red lights a lady yelled at him ‘go back to China’. In his response to this racism he said that it is his responsibility to represent his country and he takes pride in that.

Japanese-American Karate athlete Sakura Kokumai also shared a recent incident. She was training at a park when a man started harassing her verbally with racial slurs. Both athletes are training to represent the US in Tokyo at the delayed Olympic games. It has become very important to raise awareness as people are getting hit, slashed and killed because of racism. People are being targeted and the harassment, violence and discrimination is real. 149% anti-Asian hate crimes have increased in 16 American states since 2020. The increase percentage is an absolute shocker.