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Tommy Kono died April 24, 2016 at age 83.
Tommy Kono was my inspiration to get involved in Powerlifting and to stay involved.
I started training in 1968 because of Kono. I had never met him, but I had heard of him. I then trained with Dave Johns, MR America, 1977, at the Mid Valley YMCA in Van Nuys, California from 1971-72’. Arnold Schwarzenegger trained there in the late sixties before he went to Joe Golds Gym in Venice, California.
I met Kono in 73’ at the Nu’uanu YMCA. He was a humble but still a tremendous presence. He immediately encouraged me to be the best I could be. I told him my goal was a 900# deadlift, and he said concentrate on the 600 first. I did 555# in my first contest in the summer of 73’ and 605# in December of 73’. He kept telling me to set small goals but don’t lose sight of 900#. In November of 78’ I pulled 845# and had 900# over my knees, a good 5 inches up my thighs. The first thing he told me was “If you wore deadlift slippers instead of 2” thick Nike soles you would have made it.”
When I came up with the idea for the first Hawaii World Record Breakers in 1977, everybody said it couldn’t be done; everybody except Tommy Kono. In that first tournament we had lifters from Japan, New Zealand, Sweden, Canada, Finland, Great Britain, Australia, and the best lifters from the United States.
Tommy helped with sponsors and staff but more importantly he said “If you believe you can pull it off don’t worry about what everybody else says or thinks.” I lost all my staff after that first year. They were all negative. They said I was crazy trying to pull it off and it was too much stress. We got NBC to televise it that first year and then Kono hooked me up with Pan American Airlines for the second year and CBS Sports televised the show for a ½ hour special on CBS Sports Spectacular. Eventually in 1988, ESPN televised the World Record Breakers, and the Hawaii Record Breakers lasted 20 years; without Kono it would have lasted one year.
Tommy Kono was responsible directly or indirectly for Powerlifting, bodybuilding and Olympic Lifting to flourish in Hawaii. None of the bodybuilders or Olympic Lifters supported Powerlifting in Hawaii even though the Powerlifters supported both bodybuilding and Olympic Lifting. Kono not only supported Powerlifting, he was the first person in Hawaii to put on Powerlifting meets. Without Tommy Kono there is no Gus Rethwisch and there is no WABDL.
Tommy won MR World in 1954 in Roubaix, France and MR Universe three times in 1955 in Munich, Germany, 1957 in Teheran, Iran and 1961 in Vienna, Austria. He won 2 Gold medals in Olympic Lifting in 1952 at 148# in Helsinki, Finland and at 165# in 1956 in Melbourne, Australia. At 181# he won a Silver medal in Tokyo Japan in 1960. In 1953 he won the World Championships in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1954 he won the World Championships in Vienna, Austria. In1955 he won the Worlds in Munich, Germany, in 1957 he won the Worlds in Teheran, Iran, in 1958 he won the Worlds in Stockholm Sweden, and in 1959 he won the Worlds in Warsaw, Poland. He was World Champion in 3 different weight classes for 8 years in succession. This was during the Cold War with Russia and Russia was scouring the Country looking for a lifter to stop Konos’ dominance. It took them nine years and Kono only lost because of a shoulder injury. He set 26 World Records and 7 Olympic Records. Tommy also won 3 Pan American Games Championships in 1955, 1959 and 1963 in Mexico City, Chicago and Sao Paulo, Brazil respectively. He set 8 Pan American Games Records.
Tommy also was the Olympic weightlifting coach for Mexico from 1966-1968. He was also the Olympic Coach for West Germany from 1969-1972 and Olympic Coach for USA in 1976. He was elected to the USA Hall of Fame in 1990 and the International Weightlifting Hall of fame in 1994.
Tommy was honored by WABDL at the WABDL World Championships in Anaheim, California in 2007 as the Greatest Olympic Lifter of ALL Time. Arnold Schwarzenegger gave Tommy a similar award in 2009 at the Arnold Classic in Columbus, Ohio. Arnold called Tommy his greatest influence because he was the only weightlifter to excel in both bodybuilding and Olympic Weightlifting. Tommy’s crowning achievement was being selected as the Greatest Olympic Lifter of the 20th Century by a group of International peers in 1998.
In the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Jesse Owens single handedly disproved Hitlers’ theory of the ‘Aryan super race’ by winning 4 Gold medals, but still suffered racial discrimination upon returning to the United States. Nikita Krushchev, the Premier of Russia, slammed a shoe on the podium at the United Nations 1958 and said “We will bury the United States,” more or less saying that Russia was much tougher and much superior to the United States. That was the height of the Nuclear Cold War between Russia and the United States. While that war was being waged with intimidating rhetoric, Tommy quietly destroyed every Russian lifter he faced from 1952-1959, while Americans were building bomb shelters waiting for the bully ‘Russia’ to end it all.
Tommy also faced racial discrimination by being placed with his parents in a Japanese relocation camp in Tule Lake, California from age 12 to age 15. I used to go by the internment camp on the way to Reno Nevada for the WABDL Worlds in the early 2000’s. It wasn’t fit for the family dog let alone for a human.
Thank You Tommy, for the advice, for your support, for your friendship, and for the memories.
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