Working to Be a Leader

Today the New York Times profiled Ronda Rousey in their story, ” A Journey Out of Pain, Through Judo” (www.nytimes.com). Glancing at the front page of the Sports section to get a more in-depth look at those leading in the competition in Beijing, I was most interested in the Rousey article.

I know a leader who fought to get women’s judo an official Olympic sport. A responsible woman who, knowing how judo made such a positive difference in her life, wanted to make that opportunity available for women on a global scale.

“Girl Gang Leader Breaks Olympics Judo Ceiling,” read the headline I wrote to capture the many facets of the life of Rusty Kanokogi (Shattered Magazine, June 2007 available at www.ltr-nyc.com/LeaderResources.html). “I had a very dysfunctional childhood growing up in Coney Island, Brooklyn, in the 1950’s,” offered the daughter of Russian Jewish parents. “An aggressive girl with no outlets,” she organized and led a girl gang until an aunt suggested another option: judo.

Kanokogi was drawn to judo because it was an outlet for her energy. Her studies took her to Japan and she began teaching judo to men and boys when she returned. There were few girls taking judo. Kanokogi told me, “Women’s judo was just developing and although there were some countries like France, Great Britain, Switzerland, and West Germany that held competitions for women, the US wasn’t considered part of the judo world. I thought it should be.”

She made it her mission to see that women could compete equally. A mission that took her all the way to the Olympics. Although men’s judo had been an Olymic sport since 1964, women were not allowed to compete in judo. During the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, California, Kanokogi led the team presenting the case for women’s judo to be included. The response of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) wasn’t encouraging. The IOC declared, “It’s not good for women to participate in contact sports.”

Kanokogi and her colleagues brought a lawsuit against the IOC. The case never got to court, she said, because, “We could prove that we were being discriminated against.” When the 1988 Olympic Games were held in Seoul, South Korea, women’s judo was included as a demonstration sport.  By 1992, women’s judo became a medal sport.

At the time of our interview, Kanogoki was a seventh-degree black belt in judo, the highest ranked American woman and one of only three or four women to achieve this ranking in the world at the time of our interview. That could have changed by now. What hasn’t changed is the determined woman’s belief that what she got from judo was more precious than any medal.

“Judo saved my life. It put me on the right road. It gave me structure when I needed it. Also a husband (she met during one of her trips to Japan). Great kids. And grandchildren,” she said.

She also gave Ronda Rousey the opportunity to go for the gold in judo today in Beijing. I wish her well.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 at 8:56 am and is filed under Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.