Rusty Kanokogi, Fiery Advocate for Women's Judo, Dies at 74
Matthew Kruk
Rusty Kanokogi, Fiery Advocate for Women's Judo, Dies at 74
By JOSHUA ROBINSON
Rusty Kanokogi, considered the mother of women's judo after fighting for
more than two decades to make it an Olympic sport, died Saturday at
Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn. She was 74.
The cause was complications from multiple myeloma, a cancer of the
plasma cells, her daughter, Jean, said.
Kanokogi's battle for equality in judo began in 1959, when she and her
club entered the Y.M.C.A. championships in Utica, N.Y. Though women were
not explicitly barred, she cut her hair short and taped down her chest
with a bandage. But when it came time to collect her medal after winning
her bout, the tournament organizer asked her if she was a woman. She
nodded, and he stripped her of her medal.
"Had I said no," Kanokogi, a seventh-degree black belt, said in an
interview in February, "I don't think women's judo would have been in
the Olympics. It instilled a feeling in me that no woman should have to
go through this again."
Born Rena Glickman on July 30, 1935, she grew up near Coney Island and
was nicknamed Rusty for a local stray dog. Ignored by her parents, she
spent much of her teenage years trawling the burnt-out remains of Luna
Park with a bayonet strapped to her leg looking for trouble.
But judo offered her an outlet, and she often said the sport saved her
life. Her efforts to repay judo were recognized by the government of
Japan last year when she was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Japan's
highest honor for a foreigner.
Her goal of women's judo being part of the Olympics began to materialize
in 1984, when it was made an exhibition sport for the Los Angeles Games.
Four years later in Seoul, South Korea, it had medal status. Kanokogi
witnessed it firsthand as the United States coach.
She began her judo studies in earnest in 1962, when she moved to the
sport's spiritual home in Tokyo. There, she met her future husband,
Ryohei Kanokogi. They married in 1964 in New York.
In addition to her husband and daughter, Kanokogi is survived by her
son, Ted, and two grandchildren.
Kanokogi focused her efforts on persuading national and international
judo associations to organize women's competitions. Fiery and direct,
she spent nights on the phone raising money, and she wrote letters,
barreled into offices and lobbied every official she could. In 1980,
Kanokogi even mortgaged her house to help finance the first women's judo
world championships at Madison Square Garden.
"She reached out to the decision-makers and she made it personal," Lance
Nading, the president of USA Judo, said Sunday. "She demanded change."
In spite of her work for women in sports, which made her a close ally of
the tennis pioneer Billie Jean King, Kanokogi never called herself a
feminist.
"It had nothing to do with burning your underwear," she said. "I knew
they were ready to compete, so why shouldn't they have that
opportunity?"
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