(LA Times) U.S. women's judo pioneer Rena 'Rusty' Kanokogi dies
Matthew Kruk
latimes.com
U.S. women's judo pioneer Rena 'Rusty' Kanokogi dies
She helped create the first Women's World Judo Championships in 1980 and
coached the U.S. Olympic team in 1988.
By Keith Thursby
2:46 PM PST, November 23, 2009
Rena "Rusty" Kanokogi, who once had to disguise herself as a man to
compete in judo but whose perseverance was rewarded by becoming coach of
the U.S. Olympic women's judo team, has died. She was 74.
Kanokogi died Saturday in New York after a three-year battle with
leukemia, her daughter, Jean, told the Associated Press.
"Rusty inspired the sports world to think differently about the notion
of women in competitive sports, and her legacy will live on for
generations of athletes to come," USA Judo President Lance Nading said
in a statement.
Kanokogi helped create the first Women's World Judo Championships in
1980 in New York City, mortgaging her home to cover the costs. She
coached the U.S. Olympic women's judo team in Seoul in 1988.
She was born Rena Glickman in 1935 in Brooklyn, near Coney Island. She
learned judo from someone in the neighborhood, but her attempts to
compete in the city's judo clubs were met with resistance.
"They said no, you can't compete, this is men's only," Kanokogi told the
Asian Political News in 2008.
In 1959, she posed as a man in the New York State YMCA judo
championships and won, but was forced to give back her gold medal after
one of the organizers asked if she was a female.
"Had I said no I don't think women's judo would have been in the
Olympics," she told the New York Times in February. "It instilled a
feeling in me that no woman should have to go through this again."
Jean Kanokogi told the Associated Press, "Her coach said, 'Don't bring
any attention. Just pull a draw.' I guess she couldn't help herself and
she beat the guy."
With no options to compete in the United States, Kanokogi traveled to
Tokyo in 1962 to practice at the Kodokan, becoming the first woman at
the main dojo with men. While in Japan she also met her husband, Ryohei
Kanokogi, a black belt in judo, karate and stick-fighting.
They returned to the U.S. and started coaching judo and trying to build
the sport for women.
"It was everything piece by piece," she said of organizing the 1980
world championships in New York. "I didn't care it I slept or ate. It
was do or die."
Men's judo became an Olympic sport in the 1964 Games. Kanokogi
threatened legal action if women's judo was not treated equally.
Women's judo became an Olympic demonstration sport in 1984 and a medal
sport in 1988, with Kanokogi as U.S. coach.
"It had nothing to do with burning your underwear," she told the New
York Times. "I knew they were ready to compete so why shouldn't they
have the opportunity?"
Kanokogi received several honors, including last year's Emperor's Award
of the Rising Sun, bestowed on foreigners who have had a positive
influence on Japanese society. She also was the first woman to become a
seventh-degree black belt. Kanokogi worked for NBC as a commentator
during the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
And in August, the Brooklyn YMCA awarded her the gold medal she had won
in 1959.
"She was like a mother to me," 1983 Pan American Games gold medalist
Heidi Bauersachs-Trstensky told the New York Daily News earlier this
year. "She's the only one who pulled for us."
In addition to her husband and daughter, Kanokogi is survived by her
son, Ted Kanokogi, and two grandchildren.
Instead of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to the
Rusty Kanokogi Fund for the Advancement of Women's Judo, administered by
the Women's Sports Foundation.
Copyright � 2009, The Los Angeles Times