Half-Filipina diving legend dies

MANILA, Philippines - Vicki Manalo Draves would’ve been a shoo-in as an inductee at the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame enshrinement rites in the Manila Hotel recently if she only competed for the Philippines, not the US, at the 1948 London Olympics where the half-Filipina, half-English star became the first female to win two diving events in the same Olympics and the first Asian-American to hit paydirt in the Summer Games.

Draves died from complications of pancreatic cancer at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs at the age of 85 last April 11, leaving intact her legacy as one of the greatest divers ever.

Although she never wore the Philippine colors, Draves was hailed as a Filipina achiever. In 1949, she visited the Philippines, performed exhibitions in Cebu, visited her Filipino father Theodore’s hometown in Orani, Bataan, and was feted by President Elpidio Quirino at Malacañang Palace.

In 1969, she was named to the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In 2006, a two-acre park was named in her honor on Folsom and Sherman streets in San Francisco where she was born.

For sure, the Philippines would’ve embraced her as a national athlete in 1948. There were 24 Filipino athletes, including three swimmers and five boxers, in the national delegation that saw action at the London Olympics and none brought home a medal. Draves would’ve been the Philippines’ only female competitor and medalist if only she dove for her father’s homeland. It was probably never suggested for Draves to dive for the Philippines and besides, she may not have had the option of dual citizenship at the age of 24.

Draves’ father was a musician who went to the US with a string band. Her father Gertrude Taylor was English and migrated to the US to join her sister who was married to a Filipino. Her parents met in San Francisco, got married and had four children – Frances who has died of cancer, non-identical twins Vicki and Consuelo, and Sonny who passed away when he was only one year old. Draves is survived by her husband and diving coach Lyle, their sons David, Jeffrey, Dale and Kim and eight grandchildren.

Because of her Filipino lineage, Draves was often the victim of racial prejudice in American swimming clubs. “I ran into a considerable amount of prejudice,” recalled Draves. “It surprised me. I didn’t like it at that time. I didn’t think what it would do to my father.”

Once, when she was invited to dive at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, her father was barred from entering because he was not Caucasian. Her coach eventually persuaded the club officers to let him in. She sometimes used her mother’s maiden name Taylor instead of Manalo as her surname for access into swimming pools in her teens.

But as she gained in confidence as a competitive diver, the Filipina-English mestiza decided to stick with Manalo – never mind if it meant rejection from meets. At the Fairmont Hotel diving competition, she was refused entry as a Manalo. “I was asked why I entered Manalo in the swim meet,” she said. “I told them I was exercising my prerogative. When the athletic committee told me that they would tell me whom to enter, I quit.”

Draves was 16 when she took up diving. Coming from a poor family, she couldn’t afford the luxuries of a carefree childhood. Her parents, in fact, didn’t even swim. She was 10 when she enrolled in swimming class with the Red Cross, paying five cents admission to a pool in the Mission district of San Francisco.

Draves was athletic from the start. She played badminton, basketball and softball before dedicating herself to water sports. Draves graduated from Commerce High School in 1942 and worked as a secretary in the port surgeon’s office in a temporary civil service job to add to the family’s meager income.

In 1943, she was introduced to a new diving coach Lyle Draves at the Athen’s Club in Oakland. He was her fourth coach after Phil Patterson, Charlie Sava and Jimmy Hughes. Teacher and student connected immediately. Their relationship turned romantic and in 1946, they got married. Her Filipino father died the year before the wedding.

With her husband and coach by her side, Draves trained like a horse. She ruled the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) national outdoor platform competitions from 1946 to 1948 and captured the AAU indoor one-meter springboard diving crown in 1948.

“Vicki was like a slave,” said Sammy Lee, a two-time US Olympic gold medalist in the men’s 10-meter platform. “Lyle worked her six hours a day. She’d run through her list of dives four times a day – that’s 105 dives.”

But the hard work paid off in London. She topped a field of 16 contestants from eight countries in springboard diving, racking up 108.74 points ahead of runner-up Zoe Ann Olsen’s 108.23 and third placer Patricia Elsener’s 101.30. In platform diving, she also took the gold with 68.87 points to dominate a cast of 15 competitors from nine countries. The silver medal went to Elsener with 66.28 points and the bronze to Denmark’s Bertie Christopherson with 66.0.

After the Olympics, Draves was invited to visit the Philippines. “I spent a wonderful month there,” she said. “Through my diving, I was able to meet all my relatives on both my mom’s and dad’s side. Victoria can be translated into victory. And Manalo means winning in Pilipino.”

Draves said her strong faith in God led to her triumphs in the Olympics and in life.

“I believe that God has a plan for people and His plan for me has been so very, very good,” she said. “I’ve been very fortunate to have Lyle and others who cared enough to take an interest in a little girl from the wrong side of the tracks in San Francisco and who was too poor to give them any financial compensation for all their help.”

To this day, no Filipino athlete has won a gold medal in the Olympics. Draves would’ve been the first and only to accomplish the feat – if only she dove for the Philippines in 1948.