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Sidelines Kalani Simpson |
Kamehameha was
a sports hero, tooTHE statue is resplendent, isn't it? Look there, at the great chief draped in leis, covered in love and tribute. At the face, at once fierce and benevolent, topped by a crowning mahiole of luminous gold.
At the hands. A spear in one; the other open, uplifting.
Yesterday, people paraded again, there were dances and chants to honor the ruthless conqueror who became the wise, kind-hearted king, the man who united the islands and founded a nation and fathered a dynasty.
Kamehameha Day is upon us again, and all the pageantry with it.
We remember the general, the statesman, the monarch, the magnanimous old king who fixed fishponds and made the roadsides safe.
But today let's remember too that once he was young, and a sports superhero.
Wrote the noted historian R.S. Kuykendall: "He was a man of powerful physique, agile, supple, fearless ..."
One of the great athletes Hawaii has ever seen.
THE LEGENDS SAY that the infant Paiea, a Hawaiian Moses hidden away in one of the Big Island's lush valleys, swam before he walked.
(Maybe not so unusual, in those ancient days.)
Every exercise had a purpose. A soldier needed to run fast. A chief needed dexterity, and strength.
Before long it was safe to come out of exile, and he was rough and tumbling with the other youngsters in the royal court. He had a new life. And a new name, thanks to his boyhood in the wilderness.
The Lonely One.
His two great kahus -- Naeole, and then later, Kekuhaupi'o, surely, two of the top coaches in Hawaii history -- drilled him in every sport. The young Kamehameha would become expert at hakoko, wrestling. And mokomoko, boxing. Soon he would master all the traditional Hawaiian games of strength and quickness. He raced canoes.
But it is said the young chief would sometimes blow off these responsibilities to go surfing, a sport he loved and excelled in all of his life.
And lele kawa, leaping off rocky cliffs and into the water below.
And to chase girls (apparently he didn't need to run very fast).
But he was quickly becoming one of the island's best athletes.
He had, Captain Cook's top lieutenant James King wrote, "as savage a looking face as I ever saw."
THERE IS THE story of the six spears, a tale that became part of the legend perhaps because it was witnessed by astounded western sailors.
In a test of skill, six warriors threw missiles at Kamehameha at once. The young chief caught three of them -- in one hand, some accounts say -- blocked two with his own spear, and dodged another.
A kung fu movie come to life.
TOMMY KONO IS in the Olympic Hall of Fame, a local sports legend. But the greatest weightlifting achievement in Hawaii history belongs to the tall teenager who would go on to be king.
It happened during the time of the Makahiki, the annual religious festival that doubled as the Hawaiian Olympics. This would be where Kamehameha would make his move.
He would lift the Naha stone.
This is Hawaii's King Arthur tale. He who lifted the stone would be king. But it was kapu for those not of Naha rank. For Kamehameha, it was, in all likelihood, literally, lift or die.
It still lies, massively, in front of the Hilo Library. Guesses at its weight range from 500 to 5,000 pounds.
"It rested," author Richard Tregaskis wrote, "like a miniature fort."
Stephen L. Desha, author of the book "Kamehameha and his Warrior Kekuhaupio," had the future king thinking thusly: "This is not a rock; truly, it is a mountain."
He moved it.
HE BECAME KING, conquering all in his path, coloring rivers red with blood. And then he became the wise monarch, the judicious man who planted taro patches. The man we celebrate today.
And he surfed then, in times of peace. He rebuilt a holua sled run that stretched from the mountain to the sea.
Hawaiian historian S.M. Kamakau wrote that Kamehameha's "usual occupation in his old age was fishing."
A sportsman to the end.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com