The "Mother of Judo" waited 50 years to get the gold medal that was snatched from her in her first serious competition, a gender injustice that fuelled Rusty Kanokogi's winning crusade for women's judo in the Olympics [ Images ].
The gruff, plain talking Kanokogi who has received praise and recognition from the government of Japan [ Images ], the International Judo Federation and International Women's Hall of Fame, was denied the prize at a YMCA tournament for being a woman.
"This should never, never happen to a woman again in sports," Kanokogi said about the rage she felt back in 1959.
"It was a negative for a while but I turned it around into a positive. I started the manoeuvring for the recognition of women's judo and other sports. Basically it was encouragement," the 74-year-old said on the eve of last week's medal ceremony that rectified the wrong half a century later.
"If the medal had not been taken away from me, who knows? Women's judo could still be waiting to get into the Olympics."
The gender-equality fighter who is now battling a rare form of cancer was born Rena Glickman and grew up tough on the streets of Brooklyn's Coney Island when girls were not allowed to play most school sports.
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