World enews: Woman earns praise after telling man to stay away from her at the gym

A woman is being praised by social media users for firmly telling a man who had been “harassing her for months” to stay away from her at the gym.

Chelsie Gleason, from Texas, caught the interaction on camera and shared the video to her TikTok account, where it has been viewed more than 20 million times.

The clip, which was posted on 28 October, shows her lifting weights in the gym.

“I was just trying to work out when this happens,” the video caption said.

Shortly after, a man appears in the video, approaching her from behind.

He leans in and attempts to speak to her, before she quickly moves away, drops the weights, and shouts, “don’t come near me”.

“I’ve never met this guy and he’s been harassing me for months,” Gleason wrote.

The video has received more than 36,000 comments, many of which praised Gleason for her reaction.

“Yes! Always be loud and call attention! I’m so sorry you had to deal with that,” one user said.

“Notice how fast he walked away when you brought attention to the situation, he knew he was in the wrong,” another person wrote.

A third user said: “You handled that very well. Sorry you have to experience things like that,” one person said.

Fitness apparel company also commended Gleason for standing up for herself.

“The gym should be a safe space for everyone. We’re sorry it hasn’t been for you lately. Proud of you for sticking up for yourself,” a comment from the brand said.

In a follow-up video, Gleason said employees at the gym had seen the incident, and that the unnamed man has now been banned from the gym.

Despite being told he could not come back, he tried to return to the gym and employees called the police, according to Gleason.

In the video, the 20-year-old alleged that the man had been harassing her for a number of months.

Recalling her first interaction with him, she said: “When I first had an interaction with this guy, he seemed like just a random nice guy who would come up and talk to people in the gym.

“After weeks and weeks and weeks of this happening, it started to get a little weird. I’ve already told him I don’t really need [his] help, I don’t want [his] advice,” she said.

“He would follow me around weird areas at the gym, and just harass me.”

The gym has been contacted for comment.