Victoria Draves | Biography, facts, & Park | Britannica (original) (raw)

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Also Known As:

Vicki Draves

Victoria Taylor Manalo

Victoria Draves (born December 31, 1924, San Francisco, California, U.S.—died April 11, 2010, Palm Springs, California) was an American diver who was the first woman to win Olympic gold medals in both springboard and platform diving in the same Olympiad, accomplishing this feat at the 1948 Olympic Games in London.

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Victoria Draves was the first Asian American to win an Olympic medal.

Her father was Filipino, and, growing up in San Francisco during World War II, she confronted racism. A swimming club required her to alter her last name in order to train in its facilities. She was already a noted diver at the age of 16, and in 1946 she won her first U.S. outdoor highboard diving championship. That same year, she married her coach, Lyle Draves. She retained the highboard championship in 1947 and 1948 and also won the indoor 3-meter diving championship in 1948. Draves excelled in platform diving, and at the 1948 Games she accumulated 68.87 points to win the platform event. In the springboard event, she earned 108.74 points to finish just 0.51 point ahead of fellow American Zoe Ann Olsen and win the gold.

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Following her Olympic career, Draves turned professional and performed in water shows, such as Larry Crosby’s “Rhapsody in Swimtime” at Soldier Field in Chicago and Buster Crabbe’s “Aqua Parade,” which traveled throughout the United States and Europe. Afterward she established a swimming and diving training center with her husband. Draves was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1969, and in 2005 a 2-acre (0.8-hectare) park in her hometown of San Francisco was named in her honor.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Barbara A. Schreiber.