Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 16, Number 7, 1 Iulai 1999 — Hawaiian Gold [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hawaiian Gold

_ By Paula Durbin p EW VISITORS to the Pālolo Valley pool realize that an Olympio gold medalist onee taught the neighborhood kids to swim there, right across the street from her home. One of Hawai'i's greatest athletes, and the first Native Hawaiian woman to compete in the 01ympics, she was Thelma "Keko" Kalama Aiu who died May 17 at 68. In 1948, Kalama propelled the United States women's swim team to victory and a 400-meter freestyle relay record. But instead of capitalizing on her overnight celebrity, Kalama, after a brief military career, returned to Pālolo to raise a family, not far from the 9th Avenue home where she had grown up. In the 1940s As a strong, coordinated, teenaged tomboy hanging around the Waikīkl Natatorium, Kalama caught the eye of Soichi Sakamoto, the legendary University of Hawai'i swim eoaeh who, off campus, had founded the Hawai'i Swim Club, a pbwerhouse of aquatic talent. By then, Sakamoto was already famous for having formed his first ehampions by making them swim against the raging currents in the eane field irrigation ditches on Maui. Within the HSC, Sakamoto ran an informal "three-year club" to prepare his most promising youngsters, within three years, for Amateur Athletic Union meets and eventually the 01ympics. Kalama was one of these special protēgēs expected to spend four to six grueling hours daily in

the water and on a dry land . exercise routine.

"Keko was a funloving young girl," said

Reiko Oda, an HSC contemporary, "but she knew when to buckle down and get to work." Oda's husband Charley also knew Kalama from the club. "She was one of those girls who had raw Hawaiian power like Duke Kahanamoku's," he recalled. "It just had to be developed. She was also cordial, unassuming and quiet. She didn't beat her drum at all." Early on, Sakamoto saw his swimmers take top AAU honors, but his dream for the 01ympics had to be suspended during the World War II until games resumed in 1948. Of the Hawai'i swimmers who competed in the Detroit tryouts, Bill Smith, another Native Hawaiian, and Kalama made the U.S. team. While Smith was a veteran competitor, Kalama had had only 18 months of serious training. But loeal sportswriters had been forecasting her success since she was 15, calling her "a fme 01ympic team prospect" and "a virtual certainty." Ken Misumi went even further. "Hawai'i will have an 01ympic Games ehampion in 1948," he predicted. "The namē is Thelma Kalama." According to Smith, the four strongest sprinters on the women's 01ympic team were not selected for the relay event until the swimmers were on site in London. "Thelma was the baby on the team, the darling, and all the other women looked after her," Bill Smith recalled. "She surprised everyone by qualifying for the relay team at the 01ympics and swimming one of the fastest legs." Of Kalama's eoup, Sakamoto said, "Thelma lived up to everything predicted for her. The

expenence sne gainea swimrrung against the world's best is sure

to benefit her." 01ympic eoaeh Ray Daughters told The New York

Times Kalama would "turn out to be America's principal world beater" in 1952. Supermom Instead, after a year as captain of the UH swim team, Kalama enlisted in the Marine Corps. In 1954, she was honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant. Six years later, she married John Aiu, a widower with four small children, two to five years old. The eouple had three daughters, Abigail, Hildegard and Mathilde. Eventually, they divorced, but Kalama insisted on raising all seven children. "She wouldn't give them up," said Hildegard Aiu Barona, referring to Aiu's children by his previous marriage. "We don't think of ourselves as half brothers and sisters. She loved us all." Kalama subsequently adopted another son. As a single mother, she made ends meet with a combination of public assistance and ineome from jobs in a school cafe-

tena, at a filling station and delivering newspapers. She also cared for her parents and, later, her nine grandchildren, in addition to volunteering at the Pālolo pool. "She did so mueh, not just for us, but for others," said Barona. "If someone were hungry and needed a plaee to stay, she would open the doors to them. She was good to everyone." ■

yi «[iis THELMA "KEKO" KALAMA AIU: 1931-1999

"Keko" Kalama. Only Coach Sakamoto called her Thelma.

Barefooted, "Keko" Kalama anters London's Empire Stadium with the United States Olympic Swim Team about to file past the British royal family during the opening ceremonies.