Tommy Kono

Weightlifter

• Born: June 27, 1930
• Birthplace: Sacramento, California

• Died: April 24, 2016
• Place of death: Honolulu, Hawaii

Sport: Weightlifting

Early Life

Thomas Tamio Kono was born June 27, 1930, in Sacramento, California, of Japanese American parents. Skinny and sickly as a child, Tommy suffered from chronic asthma. Always the smallest child on the block, he dreamed of taking a Charles Atlas correspondence course in bodybuilding but could not afford one. After the outbreak of World War II, Tommy and his family, like many Japanese Americans, were forced to enter a detention camp. They spent three and a half years in the Tule Lake camp in Northern California. At Tule Lake, Tommy took up weightlifting to improve his health and occupy his time. He was a natural at the sport. In the span of seven years, he developed into an Olympic champion and, according to most experts, the greatest competitive weightlifter of all time.

The Road to Excellence

Tommy continued to train on his own until 1952, when he entered the United States Army. With Army support, he began training for the Olympic trials. That year he won the lightweight division Olympic gold medal at Helsinki, Finland. He continued to dominate the sport for the next thirteen years.

Competitive weightlifting requires both enormous strength and close attention to technique. Divided into weight classes, lifters competed in three categories: snatch, clean and jerk, and press (discontinued after the 1972 Olympics). In case of a tie, the lifter with the lowest body weight wins. It is thus to the lifter’s advantage to be at the lowest weight possible while competing in the heaviest class possible.

Tommy’s unique talent was his ability to use his body weight to full advantage. While setting records in world competitions, he moved up and down through four different weight classes (148, 165, 181, and 198 pounds). His three Olympic medals were each won in different weight categories: a gold medal in the lightweight class (148 pounds; Helsinki, 1952) and in the light-heavyweight class (181 pounds; Melbourne, 1956); and a silver medal in the middleweight class (165 pounds; Rome, 1960).

To control his weight, Tommy relied principally on diet. He had to eat six to eight meals a day just to maintain his weight. To lose weight he would “diet” by eating only three or four meals a day. Sometimes he would resort to force-feeding himself in order to gain weight for competition.

The Emerging Champion

Tommy became the most successful lifter of all time, winning Olympic and World Weightlifting Championships for eight consecutive years from 1952 to 1959. He established world records in four different body weight classes and held World and Olympic titles in three different body weight classes. He won the World Middleweight Championship in 1953 and 1957 through 1959, and the World Light-Heavyweight Championship in 1954 and 1955.

Although a keen individual competitor, Tommy was always respected for his commitment to his team and to the sport in general. He enjoyed the excitement of the competition as much as winning. He often remarked that he felt as satisfied if he came in second instead of first, if he knew that he had fought hard and done his best. Always humble in victory and gracious in defeat, he was a true gentleman champion in the sport.

Tommy took seriously the advice of his mentor and friend, Charles Davis: “Be prepared to perform under any conditions because people will always be looking at you as a champion.” He never forgot these words and lived by them. Once, while giving exhibitions in France in the 1950s, he arrived at a gymnasium that had a dirt floor and a badly balanced set of weights. He performed without complaint, aware of his responsibility to present himself as a true champion under any circumstances.

Continuing the Story

Tommy was one of the early innovators in developing effective weightlifting routines. In order to maximize muscle growth and avoid becoming stale, he would change training programs on a regular basis, usually every six weeks. To give his body plenty of rest, he alternated the heavy weight-training routines needed to prepare for competitions with bodybuilding routines that involved light weights and many repetitions. As a result of his varied training, Tommy competed in world-class bodybuilding events, winning the titles of Mr. World in 1954, and Mr. Universe in 1955, 1957, and 1961.

Tommy earned international respect for his knowledge of his sport. From 1966-1968, he was engaged as the national and Olympic weightlifting coach for Mexico. He introduced the Mexican team to the routine of recording every lift, even during practice, so that each member could monitor individual progress. At the time, this method was a significant innovation in weight training and has now become common practice.

After his success with the Mexican team, Tommy served as the national and Olympic weightlifting coach for West Germany in preparation for the Munich Olympics in 1972. After the Munich Olympics, Tommy served as the U.S. Olympic coach, in 1976, as a volunteer, coaching for love of the sport. He later also coached the U.S. women’s team.

In 1955, Tommy moved permanently to Hawaii, where he married Florence Rodrigues, a native of the islands, and raised three children, Jameson, JoAnn, and Mark. In 1973, he took a position with the Department of Parks and Recreation in Honolulu. In 1990, he was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame. Tommy died on April 24, 2016, in Honolulu.

Summary

After retiring from competition in 1965, Tommy Kono continued to train regularly; he considered weightlifting to be a sport, a hobby, and a way of life. He left the sport a winner, having set forty-one international records, twenty-six world records, seven Olympic records, and eight Pan-American Games records. In 1988, the International Weightlifting Federation ranked him first among the thirty greatest lifters of all time. The skinny child had come a long way since the days when he yearned to look like Charles Atlas.

Bibliography

Kim, Hyung-chan, ed. “Tommy Tamio Kono.” Distinguished Asian Americans: A Biographical Dictionary. Westport: Greenwood, 1999. Print.

Kono, Tommy. Weightlifting, Olympic Style. Honolulu: Hawaii Kono, 2001. Print.

Lindelof, Bill. "Olympic Weightlifting Great Tommy Kono, of Sacramento, Dies at 85." Sacramento Bee. Sacramento Bee, 25 Apr. 2016. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.

Wallechinsky, David, and Jaime Loucky. The Complete Book of the Olympics: 2012 Edition. London: Aurum, 2012.