Fanny Blankers-Koen

Francina Elsje "Fanny" Blankers-Koen (April 26, 1918 - January 25, 2004) was a Dutch athlete. At the 1948 Summer Olympics, she won four gold medals.

Born in Baarn as Fanny Koen, she didn't start competing in athletics until she was 16 years old. At the track she met coach Jan Blankers (a former Olympic triple jumper), who would later become her husband. She appeared to be a very versatile athlete, and was sent out to the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin at age 18. There she performed well, finishing 5th in the high jump and 5th with the Dutch 4 x 100 m relay team.

Although World War II made international competition impossible, she set several World Records in 1943, not long after having become a mother.

For the 1948 Summer Olympics, however, she was considered too old by the press to be a real favourite. Blankers-Koen was even more motivated after reading this, and she went on to win four gold medals in an overwhelming fashion: the 100 m, 200 m, 80 m hurdles and the 4 x 100 m.

Some believe that Blankers-Koen, World Record holder in the high jump, long jump and pentathlon at the time, could have won more medals had she competed in these events, but Blankers-Koen herself indicated she wouldn't have had the strength to compete in all these events.

She was welcomed home in Amsterdam by a large crowd, to her own surprise. From her neighbours, she received a new bicycle as a present, jokingly adding that she had now walked enough.

Now known as the "Flying housewife", she continued her career with some success, winning European titles in 1950 and setting another World Record in 1951.

Blankers-Koen even competed at the 1952 Summer Olympics but an injury made her forfeit the 100 m semi-finals, and she abandoned the 80 m hurdles final two hurdles after the start. Nevertheless, she would continue to compete in athletics until 1955.

In 1999, the IAAF awarded Fanny Blankers-Koen with the title of "Female athlete of the century".

She spent her last years in a nursing home in Hoofddorp, where she died aged 85.

Bibliography

• Een koningin met mannenbenen, by Kees Kooman. L.J. Veen, Amsterdam, 2003.