Vicki Manalo Draves, a biracial Filipina American diver, who was also the first Asian American female Olympic gold medalist, passed away a week ago. In 1948, nearly 40 years before Greg Louganis, the first male Olympic diver, who won both springboard and platform diving events, Vicki Draves was the first person to win both titles. Check out this article from Hyphen Magazine about her, and this article from SFGate about her experience in the 1948 London Olympics.
A friend who had the pleasure of knowing her as her son coached him in diving mentioned that she was a wonderful woman who was also extremely humble about her experiences. San Francisco also honored her as being a native daughter who did good by naming a park in the South of Market District for her. Oddly enough, it doesn’t have a swimming or a diving pool.
