Sammy Lee, USC’s Oldest Surviving Olympian, Dies At 96

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Two-time Olympic gold medalist diver Sammy Lee, who was USC’s oldest surviving Olympian, died on Friday in Newport Beach from pneumonia. He was 96.

Lee was the first Asian-American to win an Olympic gold medal for the U.S., the first man to win back-to-back Olympic golds in platform diving (1948 and 1952) and the oldest diver (at age 32) to win an Olympic gold medal.  He also won a bronze medal in the springboard in the 1948 Olympics. Lee attended Occidental College and then graduated from the USC School of Medicine in 1947.  He served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in the Korean War. Sammy Lee Square, at the corner of Olympic Blvd. and Normandie Ave. in Koreatown was named after him in 2010.  In 2013, the Los Angeles Unified School District named an elementary schools the Dr. Sammy Lee Medical and Health Sciences Magnet School. Funeral service information is pending.

6 thoughts on “Sammy Lee, USC’s Oldest Surviving Olympian, Dies At 96

  1. My young youth was spending time at the Sammy Lee swim club, which opened the pool to free swim in the summer.

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