Personal information | |||||||||||||||
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Full name | Evelyn Tokue Kawamoto | ||||||||||||||
National team | United States | ||||||||||||||
Born | Honolulu, Hawaii | September 17, 1933||||||||||||||
Died | January 22, 2017 | (aged 83)||||||||||||||
Sport | |||||||||||||||
Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||
Strokes | Freestyle | ||||||||||||||
Club | Hawaii Swim Club | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Evelyn Tokue Kawamoto (September 17, 1933 – January 22, 2017), also known by her married name as Evelyn Konno, was an American competition swimmer and two-time Olympic medalist.
In 1949, Kawamoto broke the American record in the 300-meter individual medley (IM) and 200-meter breaststroke on the same day. A month later, she won both events at the US Nationals. [1] On the final day of the 1952 U.S. Women's Olympic Trials, she set the American record in the 400-meter freestyle. [1]
Kawamoto represented the United States at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, where she earned two bronze medals as an 18-year-old. [2] She received her first bronze in the women's 4×100-meter freestyle relay, when the U.S. team of Jackie LaVine, Marilee Stepan, Jody Alderson and Kawamoto placed third behind the teams from Hungary and the Netherlands. [3] [4] Individually, she set an Olympic record in the 400-meter freestyle in a preliminary heat [1] and received a second bronze for her third-place performance in the women's 400-meter freestyle behind Hungarian swimmers Valéria Gyenge and Éva Novák. [2] [5]
She later married U.S. Olympic swimming gold medalist Ford Konno, who also competed at the 1952 Summer Olympics. [2] Kawamoto was inducted into the Hawaii Sports Hall of Fame in 2000. [6] She died in 2017 at the age of 83. [1]