Tommy Kono: Weightlifting Saga in Stockholm
1. Olympic Weightlifting Saga (Stockholm, Sweden)
Back in the old days, Stockholm hosted Olympic Weightlifting World Championships three times – in 1953, 1958 and 1963.
Ironically, the years are a perfect match to the road map of legendary Tommy Kono in the World Championships. In 1953, Tommy competed at his first Worlds and won his first World title. In 1963, he competed at his last World Championships. And in between, in 1958, Kono won his 5th gold medal also in Stockholm.
This section features a Tommy Kono: Weightlifting Saga in Stockholm as a series of History in Color photo glimpses at these World Championships.
2. Tommy Kono (USA), the Legend of Olympic weightlifting
Tommy Kono (1930-2015) is considered the most successful Japanese American weightlifting competitor of the twentieth century, and among the best Olympic weightlifters of all times. He won Olympic medals in three different weight classes from 1952 to 1960: gold in lightweight, gold in light heavyweight, silver in middleweight. He also set world records in four different weight classes, an amazing accomplishment by today’s standards.
An asthmatic child, Kono and his parents were among the Japanese-Americans interned at Tule Lake, Calif., during World War II. his health improved in the dry desert air; he began a weight-lifting regimen and by 1952 he was an important member of the U.S. national team led by legendary Bob Hoffman. He was particularly valuable to the team because he was able to increase and decrease his weight without a loss of strength and thus could compete at various weight classes. Kono won 11 national titles in his career as a lightweight (1952), a middleweight (1953, 1958-60), and a light heavyweight (1954–55, 1957, 1961–63).
Kono was America’s most unbeatable lifter. He was known for his phenomenal lifting technique and unmatched determination to win. “When Kono looks at me from the wings,” the Soviet lifter Fyodor Bogdanovsky once said, “it works on me like a python on a rabbit.” At the international level , Tommy Kono competed at three Summer Olympics and won two gold medals (Helsinki, 1952, 67.5kg and Melbourne, 1956, 82.5kg) and silver medal (Rome, 1960, 75kg). At the World championships, Kono brought home 6 gold,1 silver and 1 bronze medals. Also, Tommy Kono is a 3-tme gold medalist of Pan American Games (1955, 1959, 1963).
Besides winning world class Olympic weightlifting competitions, he was also a physique champion, winning the “Mr. Universe” title three times.
After retiring from competition, Kono became a successful lifting coach, training the Mexican national teams from 1966 – 1969 and then coaching the West German national teams from 1969 through 1972. He also coached the first three U.S. women’s weight-lifting teams. He led the women to a second-place finish in the first world championship in 1987, and two more runner-up finishes in subsequent world championships.
3. Stockholm 1.00 (1953)
To be continued….