RIP: Sammy Lee overcame racial bias to become diving legend

Courtesy of USC

Dr. Sammy Lee coached at the University of Southern California.

By Louis Chan

REPRINTED FROM ASAM NEWS

THE SWIMMING, Olympic and AsianAmerican communities are joining family and friends in mourning the death of Olympic gold medal diver Sammy Lee. Lee died Dec. 2 from Pneumonia. He was 96 years old at his death.

The Korean/American became the first Asian/American man to win an Olympic gold medal in 1948 at the London games and again in 1952 in Helsinki in the 10-meter diving competition. 

His teammate and good friend was Victoria Manolo, a Filipino/American, who also won two gold medals in diving at the same Olympics. She was the first Asian/American to win gold for the U.S. when she won the 3-meter diving category, the first of two gold medals she was to win. One of the first person's to congratulate her was Lee, who would later win his gold. 

Sammy Lee in mid-dive.

Lee later coached many Olympic greats including four-time gold medalist Greg Louganis, who is of Samoan and Swedish descent and an LGBT activist.

“He taught me at a very early age the responsibility of being (an) ambassador to not only my sport of diving but to the world,” Louganis said in a statement. “I was only 16 at my first Olympics with him as my coach.”

Hongping Li, the head diving coach at the University of Southern California, counts Lee as a mentor.

“I’m going to miss him as a mentor, as a loving father and a very kind human being,” said Li to CBS Los Angeles.

As with many Asian/American pioneers, Lee had to overcome racism. He was only allowed to practice in a Los Angeles pool once a week, the day non-Whites were allowed to use it.

(Views From the Edge contributed to this report. Earlier versions of this report mistkenly named Lee as the first Asian/American to win a gold medal. Filipina/American Victoria Manolo won her gold days before Lee won his.)

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Plaque unveiling for Victoria Manalo Draves, Filipino/American Olympic gold medalist

DEEP IN THE South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco on a wall of a housing project is a picture of a young woman who appears to be flying through the air. The office workers and techies who walk by look up and wonder who she is.

A few blocks away is a 2-acre patch of green amid the warehouses, artist studios, auto repair shops, nightclubs and trendy restaurants - a park named after a woman whom users ask, "Who is she?"

The park is the Vicky Manalo Draves Park and the mural depicts her diving off a platform into a pool of water.

Vicky Manalo Draves

A former resident of the SoMa neighborhood, she was the first Filipino American - man or woman - to win two Olympic gold medals for the United States. This Saturday, Oct. 10, a plaque will be installed at the park to explain to the office workers and neighborhood kids who this historical figure was.

The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department joins the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA), in honoring Olympic heroine Victoria Manalo Draves with a special plaque unveiling October 10 at 10 a.m.. 

Draves was the first American woman to win two gold medals for diving and became the first woman of Filipino heritage to win an Olympic gold medal. She won them in both springboard and platform at the 1948 Olympics in London.

Born in the South of Market area in 1924, Draves attended school on the same site that would become the neighborhood park named in her honor in 2006. The plaque ceremony on October 10 will be held at Victoria Manalo Draves Park, located at Folsom and Sixth Street.

“Victoria Manalo Draves was a brilliant athlete and a great role model for both women and Asian American communities,” said District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim whose district includes Victoria Manalo Draves Park. “I am proud to be honoring her legacy as an athlete and as an Asian American woman who never gave up on her dreams despite the discrimination that she faced.”

Draves attended the school adjacent to this site, which later became Bessie Carmichael Elementary School and now hosts the Filipino Education Center. 

Despite facing discrimination early in her diving career, Manalo Draves persevered and claimed gold medals in the 3- meter springboard and the 10-meter platform competitions at the 1948 Olympics. This performance continues to serve as an inspiration for all athletes interested in competition regardless of race, creed or national origin. She did not try diving until the age of 16. 

A year later, she attempted to join the Fairmont Hotel Swimming and Diving Club (ironically, the club that rejected her because she was Filipino is now the home of the Tonga Room, a tiki-bar extraordinaire) that features a floating stage on which brown-skinned musicians play island music. 

She was able to take part in amateur competitions only after changing her last name to Taylor, her mother’s maiden name.

Her coach told her that she could not compete unless she changed her name to Taylor, her mother’s maiden name, said Draves in an interview. She and her mother reluctantly agreed.

“I don’t know how my dad felt,” Draves said in an oral history in 1991, “because he never said anything.”

Despite her athletic accomplishments, the beautiful Draves was often in the shadow of her white teammate and rival, Zoe Ann Olsen. After the Olympics, she was a featured diver in the professional aquacades costarring with Buster Crabbe.


“The Bronze Plaque in honor of Victoria Manalo Draves contributes to the vibrancy of San Francisco and illustrates Rec and Park’s partnership with the SoMA community,” said Rudy Asercion, executive director of National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA).

Since many people who use Victoria Manalo Draves Park do not know who she was or what she accomplished, the community wanted to provide that history by installing a plaque near the entrance of the park that tells her story and celebrates her achievements, according to press release from SF Parks and Recreation.

“Ms. Draves is an idol for young boys and girls everywhere, she changed diving forever,” said Phil Ginsburg, SF Rec & Park General Manager. “We’re proud to be able to tell her story in the park named for her.”

Draves passed away in 2010 at the age of 85 but she lives on in ethnic studies classes and in the hearts of generations of Filipino Americans who learn her story. It's appropriate that this ceremony take place in October, designated Filipino-American History Month because it is also the month that of earliest recorded instance of a Filipino - first Asian, for that matter - to set foot in North America in 1587, as a crew member of a Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Esperanza under the command of Spanish Captain Pedro de Unamuno, who dropped his ship's anchor in Morro Bay to replenish food supplies.

Draves, the unsung heroine who overcame racial bias to win two Olympic golds and a proud native of SoMa, still has not been inducted into the San Francisco Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame - an honor given to her contemporaries, Olsen, who never won as many gold medals. 

As Vicky Manalo, she was asked to change her name to Taylor, her mother's maiden name.

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