A little information about Tommy Kono

Tommy Kono

Japanese-American Weightlifter. Won two Olympic gold medals. (1930-2016)

Tamio Tommy Kono was born in 1930 in Sacramento , California. During World War II, he was placed in a camp at Tool Lake, where he learned the basics of weightlifting. After the war, Tommy Kono returned to Sacramento and was drafted into the United States Army in 1951 and assigned as a cook. At the time of the Korean War, it was decided to serve in the battlefield, but it was exempted because it was selected as an Olympic athlete candidate.

  • He won his first gold medal at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics
  • After that, he won two more Olympic medals (gold medal in 1956, silver medal in 1960) and achieved eight consecutive world title titles. 

He has also won the titles of Mr. World (1954) and three times Mr. Universe (1955, 1957, 1961) in bodybuilding competitions. Weightlifting set new Olympic records seven times and world records 26 times in four different weight classes. After retiring from active duty, he was active as a national Olympic coach in Mexico (1966-1968), West Germany (1969-1972), and the United States (1973-1976). After being inducted into the American Olympic Hall of Fame in 1990, he was inducted into the International Weightlifting Hall of Fame in 1994. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, he was honored to be selected among the 100 best Olympic athletes of all time.

Tommy Kono died on April 24, 2016, at the age of 85. (April 2016)

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