Long before Michelle Wie came along and became the most famous Korean-American athlete of today, (even though she hasn’t won anything of note) quite possibly the most famous Korean-American athlete ever was Dr. Sammy Lee:
Sammy Lee was born in Fresno, California in 1920 and during his childhood he always wanted to take up diving. However, as a person of color Sammy was only allowed to use the pool once a week on Wednesdays. Also his Korean born dad did not want Sammy to take up diving and instead wanted him to become a doctor. Sammy made a deal with his dad that if he kept his grades up and worked towards becoming a doctor his dad would allow him to train as a diver. Thus over the years Sammy had to walk a tightrope of studying hard for school and continuing his training to become a top diver.
Sammy eventually took up competitive diving when he enrolled in Occidental College. In 1942 at the age of 22 he won his first springboard diving championship and then retired from the sport to study medicine at the University of Southern California as he had promised his dad he would do. However, with the outbreak of World War II Sammy would serve in the US Army medical corps from 1943-1945. After the war Sammy returned to college and took up competitive diving again and in 1946 he once again won the springboard diving championship despite being away from the sport for nearly four years.
Sammy Lee was still a US Army doctor when he qualified to compete in the 1948 Olympic Games. At the games Sammy won a Gold Medal for platform diving and a bronze medal for springboard diving. He was the first Asian-American to receive a Gold Medal at the Olympic Games. In 1952 he returned to the Olympics and successfully defended his platform diving title by once again winning a Gold Medal. He became the first diver ever to win back to back Gold Medals.
In 1953 while serving in the Korean War Sammy Lee would go on to win the James E. Sullivan Award which is given to the top amateur athlete of the year. Sammy would later go on to coach the Olympic diving team to include training a number of Olympic champions to include Greg Louganis. Sammy would even go on to be elected into the Olympic Hall of Fame.
Despite all of Michelle Wie’s publicity, glamour, and hype she has a long ways to go before she ever matches Sammy Lee as the best Korean-American athlete ever. The video below is an informative interview with this great champion:
As you can see by watching this video, besides being a great champion, Sammy Lee is also a great man that all Americans, not just Korean-Americans can be proud of.
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9:23 pm on February 20th, 2008 1
Great story. I suggest adding a few paragraphs and sending it in to one of the local papers -great human interest piece. If you want it published in the Korea Times please forward to SeanHayes@ahnse.com and I will forward it to the feature section editor.
4:04 am on February 21st, 2008 2
Nice post GI.
I never heard about this man before this article. Thanks to your work I learn more about my own country. This is one of the reasons why I visit your blog.
10:31 am on February 21st, 2008 3
Dr. Yu,
Are you Korean or American?
11:52 pm on February 21st, 2008 4
CPT KIM,
I’m Korean but I left Korea when I was 6 years old. Now I live in Brazil.
6:35 am on February 22nd, 2008 5
Dr. Yu,
Just out of curiosity is there a large Korean expat community in Brazil?
10:27 pm on February 22nd, 2008 6
Around 50.000 people living mostly in Sao Paulo, like me.
8:30 am on March 11th, 2008 7
Interesting man, thank you for making mr aware of him.
6:28 pm on April 30th, 2008 8
12:48 pm on July 5th, 2008 9
Where does Dr. Sammy Lee live now?
7:05 pm on July 5th, 2008 10
“Where does Dr. Sammy Lee live now?”
Sammy and Roz Lee
16357 Harbour Lane Huntington Beach
CA 92469
11:24 pm on July 6th, 2008 11
One thing that really annoys me about sammy lee is that again and again he proclaims how he overcame all the racism in the USA. He declares how he did it all himself with his own hard work.
“Lee recalled the pool in Pasadena, California, where he trained in the 1930s. “People of color could use the Brookside Park pool one day a week,” he said.”
But with all the racism around him he ignores all the “racist” people who actually helped him.
“A diving coach who recognized Lee’s talents worked with him to develop Lee’s leg muscles by having him jump into a pit filled with sand. In 1942, Lee earned a spot on the U.S. National Diving Team.”
Over and over in his personal history, regular people actually helped him. In this way he is just like the rest of Koreans in Korea. He accepts help and then says he did it all himself. What a crook.
12:05 pm on August 26th, 2008 12
GI,
Check out the August 2008 issue of KOREAM Journal. It carried four pages of Dr. Sammy Lee’s story.
6:56 am on November 12th, 2008 13
[...] as a young man, Kim was also friends with another legend of the Korean-American community Dr. Sammy Lee. Lee would become the first Asian-American to win an Olympic Gold Medal when in the 1948 Olympic [...]