The Triumph of Victoria Manalo Draves

by Rodel Rodis, Asian Week

If Victoria “Vicki” Manalo Draves had represented the Philippines when she won two gold medals in springboard and platform diving in the 1948 London Summer Olympics, there would have been monuments erected all over the Philippines to celebrate her inspiring victory and to mark the end of the nation’s long gold medal drought in the Olympics.

But because the San Francisco-born daughter of Teofilo Manalo proudly represented the United States in the 1948 Olympics, her name is virtually unknown in the Philippines.

While she is not unknown in the US, when Vicki Manalo Draves died from heart and cancer complications in her home in Palm Springs, California on April 11, 2010, news of her death did not appear in the local newspaper until almost two weeks later (”Olympic Diver Victoria Draves Dies” The Desert Sun, April 23, 2010).

News of her death still has not appeared in any of the San Francisco newspapers even though she was born and raised in the City which belatedly honored her in 2005 by naming its newest park after her. In that same year, she was honored as the Most Outstanding Alumnus of City College of San Francisco.

When Vicki received her award and spoke at the Commencement Ceremonies of City College at the Masonic Auditorium on May 27, 2005 before 2000 graduating students, she received a resounding ovation.

It was a recognition that was much-deserved and long overdue for the first woman in Olympic history to win gold medals in both springboard and platform diving events in the same games and the first swimmer or diver to win two individual gold medals in the Olympics. Vicki was also the first Asian and the first Filipino to do so.

>>>READ COMPLETE ARTICLE>>>

Olympic diver Victoria Manalo Draves dies

by Terria Smith, The Desert Sun

Photo from time Life archive

Victoria Manalo Draves emerged from the 1948 London Summer Olympics diving competition as a double gold medalist and a hero.

She became the first woman to win a gold medal in springboard and platform diving. With this historic athletic achievement, she was celebrated by many as a symbol of the American dream.

Draves was the Filipino American community’s “first national heroine,” said Fred Cordova, a founder of the Filipino American National History Society.

“Just the fact that she was the first American (woman) to win two gold medals (in diving), the fact that she was Filipino American, that was the beginning of a breakthrough to us,” Cordova said.

Draves, who lived in Palm Springs, died of heart and cancer complications on April 11. She was 85.

Born on Dec. 31, 1924, Draves and her twin were the youngest members of their family in San Francisco. Her father was Filipino, her mother English.

“Her early childhood, they were poor. She came from a poor family,” her husband and diving coach, Lyle Draves, said.

>>>COMPLETE ARTICLE HERE>>>