Recognition eludes Filipina American sports legend Vicky Manalo

Vicky Manalo and her friend and fellow gold medal diver Sammy Lee at the London Olympics

Its a downright shame that Victoria Manalo Draves has not received the honor and recognition as a sports trailblazer in her own hometown of San Francisco.

The Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame awards were handed out May 2 and once again, Draves name was not on the list of inductees.

The closest she came was in 2015 when she was nominated but for some unknown  reason, didn't make the final cut. The closest she got was in 2015 when she received a nomination but for some unknown reason, Draves didn't make the final list.

Draves has a park named after her in the South-of-Market (SoMa) neighborhood where she grew up and a few blocks away she is depicted in a mural celebrating Filipino American heroes, but she has not been inducted in the San Francisco Sports Hall of Fame.

She was included in the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1969 joining her friend Sammy Lee, the first Asian American man to win a gold medal.

She trained and competed as Vicky Manalo at the insistence of her then-coach, later to become her husband, Lyle Draves, despite several training facilities denying her use for training because she was Filipino. 

Draves was the first Asian American to win an Olympic Gold Medal in her sport of diving at the 1948 Olympics held in London. She won the 3-meter springboard diving competition and later, she became the first American woman to win two gold medals in the Olympics when she also won first place in 9-meter platform competition.

She later turned down offers from Hollywood instead choosing to perform in the Aquacades. She and her husband later opened a school for divers in Southern California.

She was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1969 and there's a drive to get her into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame being built in Colorado  that is being led by her grandson, Nolan Lyle Draves.

We will have to wait until the 2019 finalists are announced on Aug. 12, to see if Draves made the cut. After the fanilists are named, the voting window for Team USA fans will open. Members of the public will be able to vote once per day through Sept. 3. Recognizing the ongoing support that fans give U.S. Olympians, Paralympians and hopefuls in their training and competition, the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame was one of the first major sports hall of fames to incorporate fan voting into the selection process.

The U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, class of 2019, will be announced in late September, and inducted on Friday, Nov. 1, during an induction ceremony in conjunction with the all-alumni U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Team Reunion in Colorado Springs.

Opening in early 2020, the U.S. Olympic Museum in Colorado Springs, Colo., will become the new permanent home for the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame.

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