Victoria Manalo Draves
Encyclopedia
Victoria "Vicki" Manalo Draves (December 31, 1924 – April 11, 2010) was an Olympic
diver
who won gold medal
s for the United States
in both platform and springboard diving in the 1948 Summer Olympics
in London
. She was born in San Francisco.
Victoria Manalo was born to a Filipino father and an English mother. Her parents met and married in San Francisco. She couldn't afford to take swimming lessons until she was 10 years old and took summer swimming lessons from the Red Cross, paying five cents admission to a pool in the Mission district.
Manalo met diving coach Phil Patterson, who convinced Draves to try her luck as a diver and she was a natural. She graduated from high school in 1942 and took a temporary civil service job in the port surgeon's office to add to the family’s meager income. With Patterson in the military during World War II, Victoria looked for a diving coach and found her future husband, Lyle Draves, whom she married in 1946.
Prior to competing in the 1948 Olympics, Draves won five United States diving championships. Draves turned professional after the Olympics, joining Larry Crosby's "Rhapsody in Swimtime" aquatic show at Soldier Field in Chicago in 1948. She went on to appear in other shows and toured the U.S. and Europe with Buster Crabbe's "Aqua Parade." She was elected to the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in 1969.
In October 2006, a two-acre park in San Francisco was named Victoria Manalo Draves Park in her honor. Draves and her husband lived in Palm Springs, California
until her death on April 11, 2010, aged 85, from pancreatic cancer aggravated by pneumonia. Her four sons — David, Jeffrey, Dale and Kim — were never Olympic champions but became trick divers, specializing in cliff takeoffs from 90 to 100 feet.
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
diver
Diving
Diving is the sport of jumping or falling into water from a platform or springboard, sometimes while performing acrobatics. Diving is an internationally-recognized sport that is part of the Olympic Games. In addition, unstructured and non-competitive diving is a recreational pastime.Diving is one...
who won gold medal
Gold medal
A gold medal is typically the medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture...
s for the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in both platform and springboard diving in the 1948 Summer Olympics
1948 Summer Olympics
The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in London, England, United Kingdom. After a 12-year hiatus because of World War II, these were the first Summer Olympics since the 1936 Games in Berlin...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. She was born in San Francisco.
Victoria Manalo was born to a Filipino father and an English mother. Her parents met and married in San Francisco. She couldn't afford to take swimming lessons until she was 10 years old and took summer swimming lessons from the Red Cross, paying five cents admission to a pool in the Mission district.
Manalo met diving coach Phil Patterson, who convinced Draves to try her luck as a diver and she was a natural. She graduated from high school in 1942 and took a temporary civil service job in the port surgeon's office to add to the family’s meager income. With Patterson in the military during World War II, Victoria looked for a diving coach and found her future husband, Lyle Draves, whom she married in 1946.
Prior to competing in the 1948 Olympics, Draves won five United States diving championships. Draves turned professional after the Olympics, joining Larry Crosby's "Rhapsody in Swimtime" aquatic show at Soldier Field in Chicago in 1948. She went on to appear in other shows and toured the U.S. and Europe with Buster Crabbe's "Aqua Parade." She was elected to the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in 1969.
In October 2006, a two-acre park in San Francisco was named Victoria Manalo Draves Park in her honor. Draves and her husband lived in Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...
until her death on April 11, 2010, aged 85, from pancreatic cancer aggravated by pneumonia. Her four sons — David, Jeffrey, Dale and Kim — were never Olympic champions but became trick divers, specializing in cliff takeoffs from 90 to 100 feet.