Victoria Manalo Draves Park

This park honors Victoria Manalo Draves, a San Francisco native who made history at the 1948 London Olympics. She became the first woman to win gold medals in both the three-meter springboard and ten-meter platform diving events at a single Olympic Games. Her success marked her as the first Asian American woman to win an Olympic gold medal. She grew up in this very neighborhood during an era when she faced significant racial prejudice. Local public pools often restricted her access to only one day a week, after which they were routinely drained and cleaned. She frequently competed under her mother's maiden name, Taylor, to avoid discrimination that could have barred her from elite swimming and diving clubs.