Today, few remember Fanny Blankers-Koen, but she won 4 gold medals whilst pregnant at the post-war 'Austerity Games' and was named female athlete of the century in 1999.
Born Francina Elsje Koen on 26 April 1918, in the Dutch province of Utrecht, she demonstrated remarkable athletic abilities as a young child. At 17 years old, Koen began competing in track events and set a national record in the 800m run; a year later she qualified in the trials for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin but didn't win any medals.
In 1948, after a 12-year hiatus from the Games due to World War II, the Olympics were staged in London and became known as the "Austerity Games" as no new facilities were built and male athletes were billeted in Royal Air Force barracks, while women were housed in college dormitories. All were told to bring their own towels.
Now called Fanny Blankers-Koen (she married her coach, Jan Blankers, in 1940), the Dutch 30 year old mother of two was a “shy, towering, drably domesticated” straw-blonde who talked of how she liked cooking and housekeeping. The British team manager, Jack Crump, took one look at Blankers-Koen and said she was “too old to make the grade.” Few knew it at the time, but she was already three months pregnant and training only twice a week in the summer leading up to competition.
The Games began on 28 July when King George VI opened the ceremonies at Wembley Stadium before more than 80,000 people - an Olympic attendance record at the time.
Blankers-Koen got off to a strong start in the 100m sprint, blowing away the field to capture her first gold medal. Then, in her next event, the 80m hurdles, she was slow out of the blocks, but just clinched the race in a photo finish to win her second gold. She then set an Olympic record in the 200m to claim her third gold medal and in her final event, she was to run the anchor leg in the 4 x 100 relay, but the Dutch team was panicked to learn, shortly before the finals, that Blankers-Koen was nowhere to be found. A shopping trip had delayed her arrival at the stadium. She finally made her way down to the muddy track in her bright orange shorts, and by the time she’d received the baton, the Dutch were in fourth place, well behind. But she came roaring toward the finish line, closed the gap and caught the lead runner to win the gold.
In 1999, she was voted female athlete of the 20th century by the International Association of Athletics Federations (Carl Lewis was voted the best male athlete). And yet Blankers-Koen was surprised. “You mean it is me who has won?” she asked.
The remarkable Fanny Blankers-Koen died in 2004 at the age of 85.