By Yingqi Zhang
Sammy Lee was a Korean American physician and diver born in Fresno, CA. Sammy attended Occidental college for his Bachelor's degree and received his M.D. from USC School of Medicine. As a teenager witnessing the 1932 Olympics take place in LA, Sammy aspired to become an Olympic athlete and later found out that he had quite a gift for diving. However, as a person of color, Sammy was able to use the pool in Pasadena only on Wednesdays (a.k.a. “International Days), right before the pool was scheduled to be drained and cleaned. His coach dug a pit in his backyard for Sammy to practice diving. Despite such a harsh training environment, Sammy made it into the Olympic team and won his first gold medal in the 1948 London Olympics and his second one in Helsinki four years later, making him the only Asian American to win 2 consecutive Olympic gold medals. After Sammy won the gold medals, the pool where he used to train one day out of the week opened its access to everyone with no restrictions on days and acknowledged him as an honored guest.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sammy_Lee_(diver)
https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-sammy-lee-snap-20161203-story.html
(Source: https://www.bmj.com/content/356/bmj.i6857)