Tommy Kono, a Japanese-American prisoner of war who began weightlifting as a young boy in a Japanese-American detention centre, was killed on Sunday in Honolulu. He went on to become one of the most renowned lifters ever, holding many records and winning two Olympic gold medals. He was 85.
JoAnn Sumida, JoAnn’s daughter, stated that cirrhosis caused hepatic encephalopathy.
In 1952,tommy kono won his first Olympic gold medal. He won the world and Olympic championships each year until 1960 when he won the Rome silver medal. He set many world records in the 1950s and 1960s. His own count is 26; the International Weightlifting Federation lists 20. Artie Drechsler, USA Weightlifting, said this week in a tribute for tommy kono that he believed Kono’s figure to be accurate because “there were instances where paperwork was never filed” during those years.
tommy kono, who was only 5-foot-6, competed in four weight classes and set all the world records. He held records as a lightweight (the maximum weight at that time was 148.5lbs), middleweight (165, light heavyweight (181), and middle heavyweight (198). His first Olympic gold was as a lightweight. He won his second in Melbourne, in 1956 as a light-heavyweight. He also won silver as a middleweight.
His weight fluctuations were largely a matter of strategy. The journal Physical Training noted that during the Cold War, there was intense competition between the United States of America and the Soviet Union in sports. “tommy kono competed at whatever weight offered the U.S. the greatest chance of defeating the Soviets.” Kono gained weight by eating six to seven meals per day. He ate three meals a day to lose weight.
In 1990, he was elected to the United States Olympic Hall of Fame and 1993 to the International Weightlifting Hall of Fame. The International Weightlifting Federation proclaimed him the “Lifter-of-the Century” in 2005 at a ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of its foundation.
Kono was also an accomplished bodybuilder and was a role model to Arnold Schwarzenegger who saw him compete in the Mr Universe contest in Vienna in 1961. According totommy kono, he told The Sacramento Bee that he was a 13-year-old boy who was in the audience on that day. He was so inspired that he ran home and began working out.
Kono won the competition. He won Mr Universe for the third time, his other wins coming in 1955 and 1957. In 1954, he won the Mr World contest.
Tamio Kono was the son of Kanichi Kono and Ishimi tommy kono. He was born in Sacramento on June 27, 1930. His father was a printer. As a boy, he suffered from severe asthma and missed three-quarters of his classes. He also had to miss all his physical education training.
He was just over 4 feet 8 inches tall and weighed 75 pounds at age 11. He was determined to become stronger and sent a postcard asking for details about the Charles Atlas bodybuilding program. He couldn’t afford to pay $36 for the course so he didn’t enrol.
Kono started lifting weights in less fortunate circumstances. He was at the Tule Lake internment centre in Northern California. This is where he and his family were among 120,000 Japanese-Americans who moved inland from the Pacific Coast in 1942. He was relieved of asthma by the dry desert air. At age 14, Kono received a 15-pound barbell from a neighbour and was introduced to Olympic-style lifting.
Because his parents were concerned about his frailty, he began training in secret. He had already gained 15 pounds by the time the Kono clan was formed in 1945.
Kono said in 1960, “I didn’t want to be a weightlifter.” “I wanted to be healthy.”
He competed in the 1948 Sacramento High School Seniors’ Cross Country and placed second. His weight class had only two lifters. He placed second at the New York national championships two years later. This was despite being faced with more competition. He was educated at Sacramento Junior College (now Sacramento City College), and was drafted into the Army in 1951. There he was assigned as an athletic instructor, and allowed to compete and train.
He turned down an offer to be a bodybuilder in Mae West’s Las Vegas revue and he started working for the California Highway Department.
After sustaining a knee injury, Kono quit weightlifting. Later, he coached three Olympic lifting teams: Mexico in 1968, West Germany in 1972, and the United States in 1976.
Kono explained to The New Yorker in 2012 his coaching philosophy: “Weightlifting is 50% mental and 30% technique.” Although power is only 20%, everyone can reverse it.
Kono was a City of Honolulu physical fitness specialist for over 20 years. He continued lifting weights three times a week after retiring in 1997.
He is survived by his daughter and his wife, Florence Rodrigues (ex-Florence Rodrigues), whom he married in 1963. They have two sons, Jamieson, and Mark, and three grandchildren.
In the Soviet Union where weightlifting was a major sport, Kono was highly respected. The Soviets paid Kono’s way to Moscow in 1958 for him to win a weightlifting competition. They gave him 18 pounds worth of classical records and art books as a thank-you for his visit.
Tommy Kono cause of death?
Death. Kono, 85, died in Honolulu on April 24, 2016 from complications due to liver disease. His wife Florence Rodrigues, a former Florence Rodrigues from Honolulu, was his survivor. He also had three children and three grandchildren.
who is tommy kono wife ?
Kono, 85, died in Honolulu from complications of liver disease on April 24, 2016. His wife, the former Florence Rodrigues from Honolulu, of 53 years, was his only survivor. He also leaves behind three children and three grandchildren.
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