Sammy Lee, Pasadenan Who Became First Asian-American to Win Olympic Gold for U.S., Dies at 98

Two-time Olympic gold medal-winning diver Sammy Lee, who learned to dive at the Brookside Park pool in Pasadena and went on to become the first Asian-American to win an Olympic gold medal for the United States, died in Newport Beach on Friday, December 2, due to pneumonia. He was 96.

The University of Southern California announced his death Saturday. He was the school’s oldest living Olympian.

Lee became the first man to win consecutive Olympic title in platform diving in 1948 and 1952 and was the oldest diver, at 32, to win Olympic Gold. He also earned a bronze medal in three-meter springboard at the 1948 Games.

At 12 years old, Lee was first exposed to the Olympics while riding in his father’s truck through Los Angeles as the city hosted the 1932 Olympics. When his father told him the Games crown the greatest athletes in the world, Lee vowed he would be an Olympic champion.

Lee was born Samuel Rhee on Aug. 1, 1920, in Fresno to Soonkee Rhee, a farmer, and the former Eunkee Chun. His father decided to change the family name to Lee because “so many Americans believe I mean Lee when I say Rhee,” his father said in Lee’s 1987 biography, “Not Without Honor.”

A fire destroyed their farmhouse and the family moved to Los Angeles in 1925, eventually opening a grocery store and a restaurant in Highland Park.

At Franklin High School, Lee was the L.A. city diving champion when he ran for student body president and won.

He went to Occidental College on a scholarship and became the 1942 national champion in platform and 3-meter springboard diving.

After attending Occidental College in Los Angeles, he graduated from the USC School of Medicine in 1947 and became an ear, nose and throat physician.

Because the military needed doctors, Lee was assigned to an Army hospital in Pasadena, where he was given a month’s leave to train for the 1948 Olympic tryouts. He finished his residency as an ear, nose and throat specialist at Letterman Army Hospital in San Francisco.

During the Korean War, Lee served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in the Korean War.

After winning the 1948 and 1952 Olympic golds, Lee coached Olympic diving champions Pat McCormick and Louganis, who swept the springboard and platform events at the 1984 and ’88 Olympics. Lee coached the U.S. team at the 1960 and ’64 Olympics. He remained an active swimmer and golfer into his 90s.

He was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1968 and U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1990.

Sammy Lee Square in Los Angeles’ Koreatown section was named in his honor in 2010. In 2013, the Los Angeles Unified School District named one of its elementary schools the Dr. Sammy Lee Medical and Health Sciences Magnet School.

Lee is survived by wife Roz, children Pamela and Sammy II and three grandchildren.

Services are pending.