Fanny Blankers-Koen

Francina Elsje "Fanny" Blankers-Koen (April 26, 1918 – January 25, 2004) was a Dutch athlete. She is most famous for winning four gold medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. At that time, she was already a mother of two, which was unheard of at a time where female athletes were still frowned upon by many. It earned her the nickname "The Flying Housewife".

Later life

After her athletic career, Blankers-Koen served as the team leader of the Dutch athletics team, from the 1958 European Championships to the 1968 Summer Olympics.

Related Topics:
1958 European Championships - 1968 Summer Olympics

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In 1977, her husband Jan died. It forced her, often depending on Jan Blankers, to become more independent. Some years after his death, she moved back to her old hometown Hoofddorp. In 1981, the Fanny Blankers-Koen Games an international athletics event, were established. They are still held annually in Hengelo.

Related Topics:
Hoofddorp - Hengelo

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Fanny Blankers-Koen's last moment of glory came in 1999. At a gala in Monaco, organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), she was declared the "Female Athlete of the Century", very much to her own surprise.

Related Topics:
Monaco - International Association of Athletics Federations

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In the years prior to her death, she suffered from Alzheimer's disease and lived in a psychiatric nursing home. She passed away at age 85 in Hoofddorp.

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A year before her death, the first (more or less) objective biography of Blankers-Koen was published, after a 1949 work co-authored by her husband. Through many interviews with relatives, friends and contemporary athletes, it paints a previously unknown picture of her. During her successful years, Dutch and international media always portrayed her as the perfect mother, who is very modest about her own achievements. Kees Kooman's book shows Fanny Blankers-Koen to have been rather egoistic woman, who found it difficult to give love and most of all always wanted to win.

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