Vicki Draves: Google Doodle celebrates first Asian American woman to win Olympic medal

Image shows Olympian with two gold medals around neck

Google is celebrating Vicki Draves with a cartoon of the first Asian-American woman to win a medal at the Olympics.

The Doodle commemorates the diver on the same day she made history at the London Summer Olympics more than 50 years ago.

One of the images shows Draves diving into a pool, while another shows her beaming with two gold medals around her neck.

The Filipino-American diver became the first Asian-American woman to win an Olympic medal after she came first in the women’s three-metre springboard event on 3 August 1948.

She went on to win another gold in another event at the same competition.

Draves, who was born in San Francisco in 1924, started swimming lessons aged 10, and took up diving as a teenager at the encouragement of a coach, according to the Olympics website.

She went on the win three national titles before heading to the Olympics, where she also became the first female diver to come top in both the three- and 10-metre springboard.

Vicki Draves made history when she became the first Asian American woman to win an Olympic medal (Google Doodle)

Draves, who married her coach and had four children, turned professional after the Olympics.

She entered the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1969.

Draves died aged 85 in 2010.