Sammy Lee, Olympic diver, dies at 96

Sammy Lee dives during training at the 1948 London Olumpics at the Empire Pool in Wembley, England. Lee, a two-time Olympic gold medal-winning diver who later mentored four-time Olympic diving champion Greg Louganis, died Friday, Dec. 2, 2016, of pneumonia in Newport Beach, according to USC. He was 96.

The winners of the 1948 Olympic men’s 10-meter platform diving competition — from left, bronze-medal winner Joaquin Capilla Perez of Mexico, gold medalist Sammy Lee of the USA and silver medalist Bruce Ira Harlan of the USA — are joined by U.S. Coach Mike Peppe.

American diving champion Sammy Lee enters the water, his upper body completely rigid with straining muscles, during the 1948 Olympics in London.

Matt Willig, left, and Sammy Lee wear Hawaiian shirts and shorts on the runway during the Gentlemen’s Haberdashery 2000, a benefit for the Heart of Jesus Retreat Center, at the Newport Beach Marriott.

Sammy Lee, two–time Olympic diving champion, cradles a 1954 photograph showing him diving in what was then Bombay, India, where he was sent by the U.S. State Department as a sports ambassador to tour Southeast Asia.

Two–time Olympic gold-medal winner Sammy Lee greets Olympic gold medalist Kim Rhodes of El Monte in 1996. Past and present Olympic medalists attended a ceremony at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

“When I won the gold medal, standing on the victory stand, I cried because I had fulfilled my dream of being an Olympic champion,” two–time Olympic diving champion Sammy Lee said in 2011.