The Summer Olympics in Paris get underway in four weeks. It’s something I always look forward to. Today, however, I thought I’d look back 72 years at the 1952 Helsinki Games, when three swimmers from McKinley High School helped put the United States at the top of the medal count.
Yes, you heard me right. McKinley High School. Jamaica does produce some great sprinters. Kenya is known for the best long-distance runners. But these are countries. McKinley is a high school, not even a square mile in size. How could its swimmers have that much impact? Let’s see.
Meet the swimmers
The three were Ford Konno and Evelyn Kawamoto, both of whom had just graduated from McKinley in 1951, and Bill Woolsey, a junior. Joining them in Helsinki from Hilo High School was Yoshinobu Oyakawa.
Konno’s father was an auto mechanic, and he named his son for the Model T Fords he repaired.
Konno won two gold medals (in the 1,500-meter freestyle and 4×200 freestyle relay) and one silver (400 freestyle). Kawamoto won two bronze medals (400 freestyle and 4×100 relay).
Woolsey also took home a gold medal in the 4×200 relay, and Oyakawa won gold in the 100 backstroke.
One lap in Olympic-sized pools is 100 meters.
McKinley came in 16th
“If it had sovereign country status, Honolulu’s McKinley High School would have tied Denmark in 16th place for medals in the 1952 Olympic Games,” Ferd Borsch wrote in The Honolulu Advertiser in 1992.
McKinley athletes garnered more medals than Canada, Poland, Netherlands, Turkey, Romania, Norway, Argentina, Brazil, India and New Zealand.
That’s astounding in and of itself. But even more amazing, I think, is that the six medals won by these McKinley students moved the United States from second place behind the Soviet Union into first place in the total medal count.
The USSR had maintained a lead in the overall medal count for 12 of the 14 days of competition in Helsinki. The U.S. trailed with just two days to go. And then the swimmers from Hawaii took to the water.
Men’s 100-meter backstroke
Yoshinobu Oyakawa graduated from Hilo High School and was a freshman at Ohio State. In the NCAA championships in April, he came in third in the 100 backstroke. His Ohio State teammate Jack Taylor took first.
Coaches thought the 18-year-old had not reached his peak, and they were right. Three months later, in Helsinki, Oyakawa surprised everyone in the semifinals when he came in first. He shattered the world record, set at the 1936 Berlin Games, with a time of 1:05.7.
The next day, Aug. 1, he repeated his first-place victory in the finals. It was nothing less than sensational. He broke his own world record with an impressive time of 1:05.4. Taylor took the bronze medal.
Women’s 4×100 relay
The U.S. team, composed of Jackie LaVine, Marilee Stepan, Jody Alderson and Hawaii’s Evelyn Kawamoto, set a new world record in the qualifying heats of the women’s 4×100 relay.
In the finals, Hungary won and Holland came in second. The U.S. came home with bronze medals, and that cut the Soviet lead. Kawamoto also brought home a bronze medal in the 400 freestyle.
Men’s 1,500 freestyle
Next on the program was the men’s 1,500 freestyle. Shiro Hashizume of Japan had set a new Olympic record of 18:34 in the qualifying heats. Konno’s time was unremarkable — 18:53.
In the final, Hashizume took a small lead at the outset of the race. The Japanese “flying fish” continued to lead at the 1,000-meter mark.
A hundred meters later, Konno began asserting himself. He pulled even with Hashizume at the 1,200-meter mark. Then Konno displayed why he was a champion. He was at his best when the chips were down.
With 50 meters to go, he caught and passed Hashizume and held a 2-meter lead at the last turn. Konno then pulled away from Hashizume, beating him by 11.4 seconds — about 20 meters. His time set a new world record of 18:30. His gold medal put the U.S. ahead of the USSR for the first time at the 1952 Olympics.
Konno noted proudly that three full-blooded Japanese men placed 1-2-3 in the 1,500 freestyle. He had won. Hashizume from Japan was second, and Tetsuo Okamoto of Brazil was third.
Men’s 4×200 freestyle relay
On the final day of the Olympics, Woolsey and Konno teamed up with Wayne Moore and Jimmy McLane to swim in the men’s 4×200 freestyle relay.
Woolsey swam second for the U.S. team. When he hit the water, the favored Japanese team was leading by 10 yards, the Advertiser’s Andrew Mitsukado wrote. Woolsey swam the race of his life and cut the lead to 5 yards.
Konno then took over. “Up to his start, the U.S. team was a body length and a half back of the great team from Japan,” swim coach Soichi Sakamoto said. “Konno’s outstanding sprint and determined fight made it possible for our 800-meter relay team to turn a deficit into victory.
“Konno showed that he was the greatest swimmer, as he turned the margin of defeat for our team to one of victory.”
In the 400 freestyle, Konno broke the world record but was edged out by Jean Boiteux of France, who was even faster. Konno won a silver medal to add to the two gold medals he won in the 1,500 and 4×200 relay.
In all, the Hawaii swimmers set five world records at the Helsinki Games.
Sports Center of the World
After the closing ceremonies, the Advertiser wrote that the “performances of this year’s crop of swimmers merely added to a long history of record-breaking Olympic swimming achievements that stretched from the days of Duke Kahanamoku, though Warren Kealoha and Buster Crabbe, to Bill Smith in the ’48 Games.”
“Conditions locally are near-perfect for the early development of athletes in almost every field but that of winter sports. With top flight coaching, this raw material has gone on to win world recognition. This record gives Hawaii a strong claim to the title of Sports Center of the World.”
Epilogue
Konno and Woolsey participated in the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, winning the silver medal in the 4×200 meter freestyle relay. Oyakawa came in eighth in the 1956 Olympics in the 100 backstroke.
Konno and Kawamoto married in 1956 and had two daughters. All four swimmers became teachers and swim coaches. Woolsey’s grandson Ikaika Woolsey was a quarterback for the University of Hawaii in 2012-16.
“Just to be a part of the Olympic Games was very exciting,” Konno recalled. “There were so many countries, and I was just a little guy from the territory of Hawaii representing the United States. And then winning two events, that was the pinnacle, the ultimate.”
Final tally
How did McKinley’s six medals influence the total medal count?
On Aug. 3 the final tally was 76 medals for the United States and 71 for the Soviet Union. The U.S. would not have topped the Soviet Union and come in first place without the McKinley students. And Oyakawa’s gold medal was icing on the cake.
Can you think of another situation where one high school anywhere in the world was able to make this big a difference? I can’t.
Bob Sigall is the author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books. Contact him at Sigall@Yahoo.com or sign up for his free email newsletter at RearviewMirrorInsider.com.
