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Woman who posed as man to become judo champ finally gets gold - 50 years after being stripped of it
It took 50 years, but she finally got gold.
A Brooklyn judo champ stripped of her first place medal when judges realized she was a woman competing in a contest against men secured her place in the history books Friday.
It was a sweet moment for Rena (Rusty) Kanokogi, who became a pioneer for her sport - and a champion for equal rights - after her 1959 victory turned sour because she was the wrong gender.
"[The medal] should have never been taken away from me," the 74-year-old said.
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"But we're righting a wrong, that's what counts."
Kanokogi is now frail, battling cancer, and walks with a cane. But she vividly recalls the moment she took on her opponent in the New York State YMCA judo championships.
She was an alternate, and had to step in when a male team member was injured.
Although women were not explicity barred from the YMCA contests, no female had ever tried to take part. Because her hair was as short as a boy's and she had an athletic build and tape around her breasts, Kanokogi's gender wasn't questioned until she won her fight - and her team won the contest.
She was pulled aside and forced to admit she was a woman or else her teammates would have been stripped of the title.
"It was very demeaning, painful," she said.
"It was a horrible feeling - like I did something wrong by being a woman."
The event changed Kanokogi's life.
She later mortgaged her home to fund the first female judo world championships in 1980 and almost single-handedly got women's judo into the 1988 Olympics after threatening to sue the International Olympic Committee.
The New York State YMCA presented Kanokogi with a gold medal Friday to honor her lifetime's work.
"She was like a mother to me," said 1983 Pan Am Games judo gold medalist Heidi Bauersachs-Trstensky, 55, who was trained by Kanokogi.
"She's the only one who pulled for us."
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