Coco Gauff claimed she was subjected to some pretty disgusting racial abuse when she was just 12 as she had orange peels thrown at her and called “monkey.”
Gauff, who is now one of the most popular female Black athletes in the world, told TIME magazine that she was competing at a junior tournament in France eight years ago when a group of Croatian boys reportedly started mocking and insulting her over the color of her skin. The experience left Gauff shaken and she cried that night when thinking about what happened.
Reflecting on that now, the 20-year-old American underlined that’s something that just shouldn’t be happening to anyone but also added that she has no hatred towards those individuals because they probably needed some guidance.
“Then I just kind of got over it the next day. I just felt like that’s just something that people experience, which is not a great thing. They just probably didn’t grow up around other people that looked different. I don’t have any anger towards it. It was not an experience that defined me,” Gauff told TIME.
Gauff on dealing with doubters and critics
After Wimbledon, Gauff could read or hear some pretty harsh words and some claiming that she would never win a Grand…
