Fanny Blankers-Koen

Francina Elsje "Fanny" Blankers-Koen, born Koen, was a Dutch track and field athlete. She is most famous for winning four gold medals at the 1948 London Olympics. At 30 years old and a mother of two, she was the event's most successful competitor and became known as "the Flying Housewife."

She began competing in athletics in 1935 and participated in the 1936 Olympics the following year. World War II halted international competition, but during that time she set multiple world records across long jump, high jump, sprints, and hurdles.

Beyond her four Olympic titles, she won five European championships and 58 Dutch national titles. She set or tied 12 world records, the last being in the pentathlon in 1951 at age 33. She retired in 1955 and later became captain of the Dutch women's track and field team. In 1999, the IAAF named her "Female Athlete of the Century." Her Olympic success helped challenge the idea that age or motherhood prevented women from excelling in sports.

Fanny Koen was born on 26 April 1918 in Lage Vuursche, near Baarn, to Arnoldus and Helena Koen. Her father, a government official, competed in shot put and discus. She had five brothers. As a teenager, she enjoyed tennis, swimming, gymnastics, ice skating, fencing, and running. Standing at 1.75 m, she was a natural athlete with talent in many sports but struggled to choose one. A swimming coach advised her to focus on running because the Netherlands already had top swimmers like Rie Mastenbroek, giving her a better Olympic chance in track.

Her first competition in 1935, at age 17, was disappointing, but in her third race she set a national record in the 800 m. She soon made the Dutch team as a sprinter, not a middle-distance runner, since the 800 m was then considered too demanding for women and had been removed from the Olympic program after 1928. The next year, her coach and future husband, Jan Blankers—a former Olympic triple jumper from the 1928 Games—encouraged her to try out for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. At 18, she was selected for the high jump and the 4 × 100 m relay.

At the Berlin Olympics, both events took place on the same day. She tied for fifth in the high jump, and the Dutch relay team finished fifth in the final (the sixth team, Germany, was disqualified). She also got Jesse Owens's autograph, which became her most treasured possession.

She gradually rose to the top. In 1938, she ran her first world record (11.0 seconds in the 100 yards) and won her first international medals. At the European Championships in Vienna, she took bronze in both the 100 m and 200 m, events won by Stanisława Walasiewicz. Many observers, including Koen herself, expected strong performances at the next Olympics, scheduled for Helsinki in July 1940. But World War II ended those plans; the Olympics were officially canceled on 2 May 1940, a week before the Netherlands was invaded.

Just before the invasion, she became engaged, and on 29 August 1940, she married Jan Blankers, who was 15 years older. He was a sports journalist and coach of the Dutch women's athletics team, despite originally believing women should not compete in sports—a common view at the time. His attitude changed after falling in love with Koen.

When she gave birth to her first child, Jan Junior, in 1942, Dutch media assumed her career was over. Married top female athletes were rare, and a mother competing was considered unthinkable. She resumed training just weeks after the birth.

During the war, domestic competition continued in German-occupied Netherlands, and she set six new world records between 1942 and 1944. The first came in 1942, improving the 80 m hurdles mark. In 1943, she raised the high jump record by an unprecedented 5 cm, from 1.66 m to 1.71 m, at a specially arranged competition in Amsterdam on 30 May. She also tied the 100 m world record, though it was never officially recognized because she ran against men. She closed 1943 with a long jump world record of 6.25 m on 19 September, which stood until 1954.

Conditions grew harder, with food shortages affecting training. Still, she broke the world record in May 1944 and, at the same meet, ran with the relay team that broke the 4 × 100 m world record. The German press was excited because the previous record belonged to an English team. Months later, she helped break the 4 × 200 m record, previously held by Germany. In defiance, the women wore outfits with national symbols while setting it.

The winter of 1944–45, the Hongerwinter (hunger winter), was severe, with serious food shortages, especially in cities. She gave birth to a daughter, Fanneke, in 1945. Unlike after her first child, she took seven months off from sport and did only limited training.