 Kawamoto at the 1952 Olympics | |||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Evelyn Tokue Kawamoto | ||||||||||||||
| National team |  United States | ||||||||||||||
| Born | September 17, 1933 Honolulu, Hawaii | ||||||||||||||
| 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]
