Tommy Kono
Kono in 2015
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Birth name | Tamio Kono | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
June 27, 1930 Sacramento, California, U.S |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | April 24, 2016 (aged 85) Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Residence | Hawaii | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country | U.S.A | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Olympic weightlifting | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event(s) |
Clean and press Clean and jerk Snatch |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turned pro | 1952 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Retired | 1964 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Medal record
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tamio "Tommy" Kono (June 27, 1930 – April 24, 2016) was an American weightlifter in the 1950s and 1960s. Kono set world records in four different weight classes: lightweight (149 pounds or 67.5 kilograms), middleweight (165 lb or 75 kg), light-heavyweight (182 lb or 82.5 kg), and middle-heavyweight (198 lb or 90 kg).
Of Japanese descent, Kono was born in Sacramento, California, on June 27, 1930. Kono's family was relocated to Tule Lake internment camp in 1942 during World War II. Sickly as a child, the desert air helped Kono's asthma. It was during the relocation that Kono was introduced to weightlifting by neighbors including the late Noboru "Dave" Shimoda, a member of the Tule Lake weight lifting and bodybuilding club and brother of actor Yuki Shimoda and his friends, Gotoh, Toda, and Bob Nakanishi. After 3½ years they were released and Kono finished high school at Sacramento High. He later worked for the California Department of Motor Vehicles and attended Sacramento Junior College.
Kono was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1950 but was kept home from the Korean War after officials learned of his Olympic potential.
Kono was a gold medalist at both the 1952 Summer Olympics and 1956 Summer Olympics, and a silver medalist at the 1960 Summer Olympics under coach Bob Hoffman. Kono won the World Weightlifting Championships six consecutive times from 1953 to 1959 and was a three-time Pan American Games champion; in 1955, 1959, and 1963. A knee injury prevented him from qualifying for the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and the following year he retired from the sport. He set a total of 26 world records and 7 Olympic records.
...
Wikipedia