Tommy Kono was born in Sacramento, California, in 1930. However, when he was 12, Kono and his family were held in a Japanese internment camp during World War II.

The family stayed in this camp from 1942 till 1945. This was where the athlete discovered weightlifting largely because there was nothing there to distract him and he just wanted to get into good shape. 

Once the war ended, Kono was able to return to Sacramento where he began entering weightlifting competitions.

"By 1952, he was an invaluable member of the US national weightlifting team, in part due to his rare ability to move between weight classes without losing his strength,” said his Google Doodle page. 

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Kono's incredible weightlifting skills won him his first gold medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics. He also broke the world record at the Helinski games. A few years later, Kono won his second Olympic gold medal at the 1956 Summer Olympics which took place in Melbourne.

As if that was not enough, in 1960, Kono won the silver medal in the middleweight category at the Summer Olympics in Rome. 

His Team USA bio reads: “Across his career, Kono set 37 American, eight Pan American, seven Olympic and 26 world records. Upon retiring, Kono served as national weightlifting coach for Mexico, West Germany and the United States, and also worked as an International Weightlifting Federation coach and referee”.

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Kono was far from being just an athlete. In fact, the weightlifter also went on to become a bodybuilder.

The good-looker also bagged several Mr Universe titles for the years of 1954, 1955, 1957 and 1961. 

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Did you know that Kono was the reason why a young Arnold Schwarzenegger decided that he wanted to lift weights? 

According to an interview that Kono did with The Olympians, he said: “In Europe, everybody lifts weights. It’s a common thing. Arnold was a weightlifter living on the outskirts of Vienna. He saw me in 1961. He was 13 years old. He decided that ‘If that little guy can win Mr Universe, I could do that too.’ He started training hard, he won Junior Mister World, and eventually, he won the big one.”

Today, at 73, Schwarzenegger is still showing off his ability to lift weights on Instagram.

Kono passed away from complications arising from the liver disease he had on April 24, 2016, and he was 85 at that time. 

He passed away in Honolulu, Hawaii and is currently survived by his beloved wife, Florence Rodrigues Kono, his three children and his three grandchildren.

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