You could call Sammy Lee the Asian American Jesse Owens.
The Korean American (photo USCTrojan.com) won two Olympic gold medals in diving at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Games. KCET did a wonderful profile on Lee’s life this week.
Among the highlights:
Just three years after Jesse Owens showed up Hitler and won four Olympic gold medals in Berlin in 1936, Lee defied his principal who had urged him to drop out, ran for student body president in Los Angeles and won.
“This school has never had a non-white student body president,” Lee’s principal informed him prior to his election. “You might as well get your name off the list.”
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“My fellow classmates do not look at me as Korean. They look at me as a fellow American,” was Lee’s response following his election victory.
It was an attitude instilled in him by his father.
It was an attitude that served him well.
The city of Pasadena would only allow Lee to use its swimming pool one day a week, the day the pool was cleaned and the only day the pool wasn’t designated for whites only.
Lee continued his rigorous training for the Olympics in his backyard. His coach dug a big hole and filled it with sand so the Olympian could practice his diving techniques.
Despite Lee’s Olympic success, becoming the first Asian American to win Olympic gold, he continued to face discrimination. Yet he went on to play an important role in the fight for integration. You can read about that in KCET.
