Full name Evelyn Tokue Kawamoto Name Evelyn Kawamoto National team United States Role Olympic athlete | Sport Swimming Strokes Freestyle swimming Club Hawaii Swim Club | |
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Born September 17, 1933 (age 90) ( 1933-09-17 ) Honolulu, Hawaii Olympic medals Swimming at the 1952 Summer Olympics - 400 metre Freestyle Women | ||
Evelyn Tokue Kawamoto (September 17, 1933 – January 22, 2017), also known by her married name 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. On the final day of the 1952 U.S. Women’s Olympic Trials, she set the American record in the 400-meter freestyle.
Kawamoto represented the United States at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, where she earned two bronze medals as an 18-year-old. 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. Individually, she set an Olympic record in the 400-meter freestyle in a preliminary heat 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.
She later married U.S. Olympic swimming gold medalist Ford Konno, who also competed at the 1952 Summer Olympics. Kawamoto was inducted into the Hawaii Sports Hall of Fame in 2000. She died in 2017 at the age of 83.