Samuel Lee (diver)

Samuel Lee

Samuel "Sammy" Lee (born August 1, 1920 in Fresno , California , † December 2, 2016 in Newport Beach , California) was an American water diver who was twice Olympic champion in diving.

Live and act

Growing up in California to Korean parents, Samuel Lee was the first diver to perform the two and a half back flips in 1938. In 1942, Lee became the US champion for the first time. Over the next several years, Lee devoted himself to studying medicine at the University of Southern California . After receiving his doctorate, Lee became a military doctor in the US Army .

In 1946 he went back to competitive sports and was again US champion, which he succeeded in 1947. At the Olympic Games in 1948 he was third in jumping and won the competition from the tower in front of Bruce Harlan , who had won gold in jumping. Four years later, at the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952 , Samuel Lee was the first water diver to repeat his Olympic victory from the tower.

After his career, the ear, nose and throat specialist remained connected to the sport. For years he was a judge for diving, so at the Olympic Games in 1956, 1964 and 1968. In 1968 he was accepted into the hall of fame of international swimming . As a trainer, he looked after Robert Webster and Greg Louganis , whom he discovered in 1971, among others .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Diving Legend Sammy Lee Passes Away At Age 96. swimmingworldmagazine.com, December 3, 2016, accessed December 4, 2016 . 

literature

• Volker Kluge : Summer Olympic Games. The Chronicle II. London 1948 - Tokyo 1964. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-328-00740-7 .
• Bill Mallon , Ian Buchanan: Quest for Gold. The encyclopedia of American olympians . Leisure Press, New York 1984, ISBN 0-88011-217-4 .

Web links

• Samuel Lee in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Samuel Lee in the International Swimming Hall of Fame (English)