Today marks the centenary of legendary Dutch athlete Fanny Blankers-Koen (1918-2004).
The track star who won four gold medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London is celebrated in today's Google Doodle.
Here are five things you need to know about her.
1. Her husband and coach Jan was originally against women competing in sport
Francina Elsje Koen was born in Lage Vuursche, the Netherlands, on 26 April 1918, the daughter of a government official who encouraged her early sporting interests and himself competed in shot put and discus.
Choosing running over swimming as her primary discipline, Fanny set a national record for the 800 metres at age 17. Called up to the Dutch international team, she met her coach and future husband Jan Blankers.
Blankers, a former Olympic triple-jumper who was 15 years her senior, had originally been opposed to women competing in sport at all, a not uncommon attitude for the period.
However, Fanny's clear potential persuaded him to change his mind and he encouraged her to enter trials for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
2. Jesse Owens was her inspiration
Competing in the high jump and 4 x 100 metre relay in Germany, Koen finished fifth in both events but her real prize at those historic games was meeting her hero.
Fanny was so starstruck to meet Jesse Owens - the black American sprinter whose four gold medal haul embarrassed Adolf Hitler and severely undermined the Fuhrer's racist rhetoric on his home turf - that she got his autograph and kept it for the rest of her life, considering it her prized possession.
Google Doodles
93 show all Google Doodles
1/93 Fanny Blankers-Koen Google Doodle celebrating Fanny Blankers-Koen Google
2/93 Omar Sharif Google Doodle celebrating Omar Sharif Google
3/93 Maya Angelou Google Doodle celebrating Maya Angelou Google
4/93 John Harrison Google Doodle celebrating John Harrison Google
5/93 Hannah Glasse Google Doodle celebrating Hannah Glasse Google
6/93 Katsuko Saruhashi Google Doodle celebrating Katsuko Saruhashi Google
7/93 Guillermo Haro Google Doodle celebrating Guillermo Haro Google
8/93 Sir William Henry Perkin Google Doodle celebrating Sir William Henry Perkin Google
9/93 Gabriel Garcia Marquez Google Doodle celebrating Gabriel Garcia Marquez Google
10/93 Holi Google Doodle celebrating Holi Google
11/93 St. David's Day Google Doodle celebrating St. David's Day Google
12/93 Carter G Woodson Google Doodle celebrating Carter G Woodson Google
13/93 Wilder Penfield Google Doodle celebrating Wilder Penfield Google
14/93 Virginia Woolf Google Doodle celebrating Virginia Woolf Google
15/93 Sergei Eisenstein Google Doodle celebrating Sergei Eisenstein Google
16/93 Winter Solstice Google Doodle celebrating Winter Solstice Google
17/93 St Andrew's Day Google Doodle celebrating St Andrew's Day Google
18/93 Gertrude Jekyll Google Doodle celebrating Gertrude Jekyll Google
19/93 Children's Day 2017 Google Doodle celebrating Children's Day 2017 Google
20/93 Cornelia Sorabji Google Doodle celebrating Cornelia Sorabji Google
21/93 Pad Thai Google Doodle celebrating Pad Thai Google
22/93 Jackie Forster Google Doodle celebrating Jackie Forster Google
23/93 Halloween 2017 Google Doodle celebrating Halloween 2017 Google
24/93 Studio for Electronic Music Google Doodle celebrating the Studio for Electronic Music Google
25/93 Selena Quintanilla Google Doodle celebrating Selena Quintanilla Google
26/93 Olaudah Equiano Google Doodle celebrating Olaudah Equiano Google
27/93 Fridtjof Nansen Google Doodle celebrating Fridtjof Nansen Google
28/93 Amalia Hernandez Google Doodle celebrating Amalia Hernandez Google
29/93 Dr Samuel Johnson Google Doodle celebrating Dr Samuel Johnson Google
30/93 Sir John Cornforth Google Doodle celebrating Sir John Cornforth Google
31/93 British Sign Language Google Doodle celebrating British Sign Language Google
32/93 Eduard Khil Google Doodle celebrating Eduard Khil Google
33/93 James Wong Howe Google Doodle celebrating James Wong Howe Google
34/93 Eiko Ishioka Google Doodle celebrating Eiko Ishioka Google
35/93 Eva Ekeblad Google Doodle celebrating Eva Ekeblad Google
36/93 Fourth of July Google Doodle celebrating Fourth of July Google
37/93 Wimbledon Championship Google Doodle celebrating Wimbledon Google
38/93 Victor Hugo Google Doodle celebrating Victor Hugo Google
39/93 Google Doodle celebrating Oskar Fischinger Google Doodle celebrating Oskar Fischinger Google
40/93 UK General Election 2017 Google celebrates the UK General Election Google
41/93 Zaha Hadid Google celebrates the acclaimed architect for becoming the first woman to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize on this day in 2004 Google
42/93 Richard Oakes Google Doodle celebrating Richard Oakes' 75 birthday Google
43/93 Google Doodle celebrating the Antikythera Mechanism Google Doodle celebrating the Antikythera Mechanism Google
44/93 Ferdinand Monoyer The famous French ophthalmologist, who invented the eye test, would have celebrated his 181st birthday today Google
45/93 Google Doodle celebrating Giro d'Italia's 100th Anniversary Google Doodle celebrating Giro d'Italia's 100th Anniversary Google
46/93 Google Doodle celebrating Nasa's Cassini probe Google Doodle celebrating Nasa's Cassini probe Google
47/93 Google Doodle celebrating Fazlur Rahman Khan Google Doodle celebrating Fazlur Rahman Khan Google
48/93 Google Doodle celebrating Sergei Diaghilev Google Doodle celebrating Sergei Diaghilev Google
49/93 Google Doodle celebrating St. Patrick's Day Google Doodle celebrating St. Patrick's Day Google
50/93 Google Doodle celebrating Holi Festival Google Doodle celebrating Holi Festival Google
51/93 Google Doodle celebrating St. David's Day Google Doodle celebrating St. David's Day Google
52/93 Abdul Sattar Edhi Google Doodle of Abdul Sattar Edhi on February 28 2017 Google
53/93 Seven earth-sized exoplanets discovered Google Doodle celebrates Nasa's discovery of seven earth-sized exoplanets in new solar system Google
54/93 Bessie Coleman Google Doodle honours the first African American woman to get an international pilot licence on her 125th birthday Google
55/93 Caroling Google Doodle celebrates Christmas caroling Google
56/93 Today's Google Doodle features activist Steve Biko Google
57/93 Walter Cronkite Google celebrates Walter Cronkite's 100th birthday
58/93 Ladislao José Biro Google celebrates Ladislao José Biro 117th birthday
59/93 Google Google celebrates its 18th birthday
60/93 The history of tea in Britain Google celebrates the 385th anniversary of tea in the UK
61/93 Autumnal equinox 2016 Google marks the start of fall
62/93 Paralympics 2016 Google marks the start of the Paralympic Games 2016
63/93 Nettie Stevens Google celebrates Nettie Stevens 155th birthday
64/93 Father's Day 2016 Google celebrates Father's Day
65/93 Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Google celebrates Elizabeth Garrett Anderson 180th birthday
66/93 Earth Day 2016 Google celebrates Earth Day
67/93 Ravi Shankar Google marks Pandit Ravi Shankar's 96th birthday
68/93 Olympic Games in 1896 Google are celebrates the 120th anniversary of the modern Olympic Games in 1896
69/93 World Twenty20 final Google celebrates the 2016 World Twenty20 cricket final between the West Indies and England with a doodle Google
70/93 William Morris Google celebrates William Morris' 182 birthday with a doodle showcasing his most famous designs Google
71/93 St Patrick's Day 2016 Googlle celebrates St Patrick's Day on 17 March
72/93 Caroline Herschel Google marks Caroline Herschel's 266th birthday Google
73/93 Clara Rockmore Google celebrates Clara Rockmore's 105th birthday
74/93 International Women's Day 2016 #OneDayIWill video marks International Woman's Day on 8 March
75/93 St David's Day 2016 Google marks St David's Day Google
76/93 Leap Year 2016 Google celebrates Leap Day on 28 February 2 Google
77/93 Lantern Festival 2016 Google celebrates the last day of the Chinese New Year celebrations with a doodle of the Lantern Festival Google
78/93 Stethoscope Inventor, René Laennec Google celebrate's René Laennec's 235th birthday
79/93 Valentine's Day 2016 Google celebrates Valentine's Day with a romantic Doodle
80/93 Dmitri Mendeleev Google celebrate Dmitri Mendeleev's 182nd birthday
81/93 "The televisor" demonstartion Google Doodle celebrates 90 years since the first demonstration of television or "the televisor" to the public
82/93 Professor Scoville Google marks Professor Scoville’s 151st birthday
83/93 Sophie Taeuber-Arp Google marks Sophie Taeuber-Arp's 127th birthday
84/93 Charles Perrault Google celebrates author Charles Perrault's 388th birthday
85/93 Mountain of Butterflies discovery Google celebrates the 41st anniversary of the discovery of the Mountain of Butterflies
86/93 Winter Solstice 2015 Google celebrate the Winter Solstice
87/93 St Andrew's Day 2015 Google marks St Andrew's Day with doodle featuring Scotland's flag and Loch Ness monster
88/93 41st anniversary of the discovery of 'Lucy' Google marks the 41st anniversary of the discovery of 'Lucy', the name given to a collection of fossilised bones that once made up the skeleton of a hominid from the Australopithecus afarensis species, who lived in Ethiopia 3.2 million years ago
89/93 George Boole Google marks George Boole's 200th birthday
90/93 Halloween 2015 Google celebrates Halloween using an interactive doodle game "Global Candy Cup"
91/93 Prague Astronomical Clock Google celebrates the 605th anniversary of the Prague Astronomical Clock, one of the oldest functioning timepieces in the world
92/93 Autumnal Equinox 2015 Google marks the autumnal equinox on 23 September
93/93 International Women's Day 2018 Google marks IWD with a doodle featuring a dozen female artists from 12 different countries
3. She was written off when the Second World War broke out
After winning two bronzes at the European Championships in Vienna in 1938, the outbreak of the Second World War saw the 1940 and 1944 Olympics cancelled as Europe became a theatre of bloodshed.
Fanny Blankers-Koen, who had married in 1940 and given birth to a son a year later and a daughter in 1946, was assumed to be "too old to make the grade" at age 30 when the Games were finally revived at London's Wembley Stadium in 1948.
Blankers-Koen competing in the hurdles at the 1948 London Games (Getty)
Her extraordinary, four gold medal-winning performance in the UK proved her doubters wrong and was attributed to the athlete's dogged commitment to training throughout the war, despite the suspension of domestic competition in the German-occupied Netherlands.
She had returned to the track just three weeks after Jan Junior was born and even tied the world 100 metres record in 1943, ignoring letters from members of the public critical of her for competing rather than staying at home to care for her family.
Journalist Kees Kooman, her biographer, later suggested that: "If it hadn't been for the Second World War, she would have won seven, eight, nine Olympic gold medals."
4. She became known as 'The Flying Housewife'
Blankers-Koen won golds in the 100 metres, 200 metres, 80 metres hurdles and 4 x 100 metres relay in the London rain but arguably her greater achievement lay in smashing contemporary expectations.
The athlete who would be immortalised as as "the Flying Housewife" made a nonsense of the sexist assumptions of the period about what was and was not possible and respectable for a woman, her running shoes blazing a trail for others to follow.
On returning to the Netherlands, she was met with a hero's welcome. In Amsterdam, she was paraded around the city in a coach pulled by four horses and presented with a bicycle before Queen Juliana made her a knight of the Order of Orange Nassau.
5. She was named Female Athlete of the 20th Century
Her place in history assured, Fanny Blankers-Koen continued to compete, taking three further golds at the 1950 European Championships in Brussels before retiring in 1955 and living a relatively private life thereafter.
Mr Kooman said of her character off the field: "[She] was very complicated. I think most real sports stars are. It is why they reach the top.
"Fanny wasn't only the shy, nice Dutch housewife. Sport was everything to her and she wanted to win in everything. If she was out on her bike and someone was ahead of her she had to beat them."
The darker side to her personality was revealed by the part she is rumoured to have played in 1950 in discrediting Foekje Dillema, a younger rival who broke Fanny's national 200 metre record before her gender was called into question and she was banned from athletics for life. Fanny is also understood to have had a difficult relationship with her children.
Photo essay: Britain's 1948 Olympians today
9 show all Photo essay: Britain's 1948 Olympians today
1/9 Dame Mary Glen Haig (b. 1918), London, 2007 Fencer. Having competed in four Olympic Games, she was the first female member of the International Olympic Committee at the same time as working as an executive in London’s largest hospitals. Copyright Katherine Green
2/9 John Peake (b. 1924), Peterborough, 2012 Hockey (silver medal). A Cambridge graduate and Engineer. Copyright Katherine Green
3/9 John & Dorothy Parlett (b. 1925 & 1927), Essex, 2007. Runners Dorothy, nicknamed 'the secretary from Essex' won silver in the 100m, coming second to Fanny Blankers-Koen. John worked as a graphic designer. Copyright Katherine Green
4/9 Jimmy McColl (b. 1924), Edinburgh, 2012. Jimmy turned professional after the 1948 Olympic Games, playing for Queen of the South. Copyright Katherine Green
5/9 George Weedon (b. 1920), London, 2010. Gymnast. Also an accomplished ballroom dancer, springboard diver and qualified in acrobatic ballet, Weedon taught physical education.
6/9 Edwin Bowey (b. 1924) London, 2011. Freestyle Wrestler. Sport gave Edwin a taste for discovery, he later lived in New Zealand, became a lumberjack there, then a gardener back in London as well as following a life long interest in Yoga. Copyright Katherine Green
7/9 Donald Scott (b. 1928), Derby, 2007 Middleweight Boxer (silver medal winner) A Corporal physical training instructor in the Royal Military Police, Don turned professional in 1950. Copyright Katherine Green
8/9 Cathie Gibson (b. 1931), Dunfermline, 2008 Swimmer (bronze medal winner) At one stage Cathie held 29 British records, and was so well known that Madame Tussauds made a model of her. Copyright Katherine Green
9/9 Dorothy Tyler (b. 1920), Surrey, 2008. High Jump (silver medal winner). She competed in three Olympic Games winning silver in Berlin in 1936. Dorothy was a driver for the army during the war. She still plays golf competitively. Copyright Katherine Green
Blankers-Koen suffered from Alzheimer's in later life and died in Hoofddorp on 25 January 2004 - but not before receiving one final honour.
The International Association of Athletics Federation named her "Female Athlete of the Century" at a gala in Monaco in 1999.
Follow the Independent Sport on Instagram here, for all of the best images, videos and stories from around the sporting world.
Described as "the flying Housewife" and hailed as one of the most successful athletes of her time, Fanny Blankers-Koen would have been 100 years old on April 26.
In the Dutch track-and-field athlete's honour, Google is changing its doodle in nine countries.
This is her story:
National record
Francina Elsje Koen was born in Baarn, a small town in the Dutch province of Utrecht in 1918.
She had four brothers and was the only daughter of a wealthy father who became government inspector.
She showed an early inclination for sports such as tennis, swimming, fencing and running.
Aged 15, she was asked by her trainer to choose a sport. She selected track-and-field, and by the age of 17, she had broken her first national record for the women's 800 metres.
August 6, 1948: Fanny Blankers-Koen "The Flying Housewife" from the Netherlands is first women to win 4 golds at the Olympics. pic.twitter.com/fWohrSc1k6 — Ｈｉｓｔｏｒｙ (@HistoryTime_) August 6, 2017
World War II
In 1936, at the age of 18, she competed in the Berlin Olympics.
Despite her young age, she won sixth place in high jump and was a member of the 4x100-metres team that came fifth.
During World War II, the Netherlands was under Nazi occupation and there was a six-year cessation of international competition.
The young athlete married her coach Jan Blankers.
The couple had a son, Jantje, and a daughter, Fanneke.
Blankers-Koen continued to build up her speed and by the end of 1943, she was a world-record holder at 80 metres hurdles.
Flying housewife
The first major international event for her after the war was the 1946 European Championships held in Oslo, Norway.
As the leading athlete in the Netherlands, she held six world records: in the 100-metre dash, 80-metre hurdles, high jump, long jump, 4x100 relay and 4x400 relay.
When she declared her intentions to compete in the 1948 London Games, she received letters from many criticising her for continuing to race despite being a mother and insisting she stay home. She was 30.
"I got very many bad letters, people writing that I must stay home with my children and that I should not be allowed to run on a track with - how do you say it? - short trousers,'' she told The New York Times in 1982.
People wrote that I must stay home with my children. Fanny Blankers-Koen
Gold opportunity
Despite the constant criticism, she still participated in the London Games, where she won four golds: 100 metres, 80 metres hurdles, 200 metres, and 4x100 metres,
The feat made her the first woman to win four medals in a single Olympics.
"One newspaperman wrote that I was too old to run, that I should stay at home and take care of my children. When I got to London, I pointed my finger at him and I said: 'I show you,'" she said.
But during the competition, she was under extreme pressure, and before the semifinals, she told her husband she wanted to quit: "Two Olympics medals is enough", she was quoted as saying.
Years later, her husband told in an interview to The Times: "I had to talk too much. There is only one chance in your life that you can perhaps win three gold medals, and that is the chance that you will take."
In 1955, she retired from the track but kept in shape with running, swimming and tennis, and she continued serving the sport by managing the Netherlands athletics team at the Rome, Tokyo and Mexico City Olympics.
She died in Amsterdam at the age of 85, on January 25, 2004.
Two Olympics medals is enough. Fanny Blankers-Koen
Recognition
Story highlights Trailblazing Dutch sprinter features in Google cartoon
Fanny Blankers-Koen won four athletics golds at 1948 Olympics
No woman has repeated the feat since
(CNN) Dutch sprinter Fanny Blankers-Koen, who would have turned 100 on Thursday, has been honored with a Google Doodle.
She stands alone as the first and only woman to have won four athletics gold medals at a single Olympics, in London in 1948.
Blankers-Koen could easily have collected even more, but for a rule preventing female athletes from participating in more than three individual events.
Today marks the centenary of legendary Dutch athlete Fanny Blankers-Koen (1918-2004). Olympic hero who blazed a trail for women athletes is honoured with Google Doodle on her 100th birthday! pic.twitter.com/dNkcafPXaS — The Female Lead (@female_lead) April 26, 2018
As a consequence, she limited herself to the track, winning the 100 meters, 200 meters, 80 meters hurdles and in the 4x100 meters relay. But she also held world records in the long jump and high jump at the time.
Blankers-Koen streaks ahead in the 80m hurdles at the London 1948 Olympic Games -- an event she went on to win in record time.
More incredible still, Blankers-Koen -- nicknamed the "Flying Housewife" -- achieved all this at the age of 30 while pregnant with her third child.
Read More
SHE was the trailblazing Dutch track star whose achievements at the 1948 London Olympics made a mockery of stereotypes about female athletes.
Now Fanny Blankers-Koen is being commemorated with a Google Doodle on what would have been her 100th birthday – here is what you need to know about her...
PA:Empics Sport Fanny Blankers-Koen crushed sexist stereotypes with her athletic achievements
Who was Fanny Blankers-Koen?
Fanny Blankers-Koen was born Francina Elsje Koen on April 26, 1918, in Lage Vuursche, a small village in the Netherlands.
The daughter of a government official who competed in the discus and shot put, she was an athletic teenager who excelled in tennis, swimming and gymnastics.
However, it was as a runner that Blankers-Koen made the biggest impression, and she set a national 800m record in just her third race.
At the age of 18, she appeared in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, coming joint-sixth in the high jump and fifth in the 4x100m relay.
Times Newspapers Ltd Blankers-Koen opted for the track despite excelling at a range of sports
During the games, she also secured the autograph of Jesse Owens, the iconic black American athlete who embarrassed Hitler's Nazi regime with four gold medals.
She married former triple jumper and sports journalist Jan Blankers in August 1940 during World War Two, and gave birth to their first child, Jan Junior, the following year.
Although at the time it was expected that female athletes would retire when they started having children, Blankers-Koen was in training within weeks of her son's birth.
Competing in German-occupied Holland she went from strength to strength, establishing six world records between 1942 and 1944.
Google A Google Doodle celebrates the Dutch athlete on her 100th birthday
The birth of her second child, Fanny Junior, came just six weeks before the first major post-war athletics meeting.
Despite this, she took two gold medals at the 1946 European Championships in Oslo, in the 80m hurdles and 4x100m relay.
The biggest triumph of Blankers-Koen's glittering career came two years later.
Ahead of the 1948 Olympics in London she was written off by many, and criticised by those who thought she should stop competing to focus on being a wife and mother.
AP:Associated Press Blankers-Koen defied critics to make history in the 1948 London Olympics
She proved them wrong in spectacular fashion, winning gold medals in the 100m, 80m hurdles, 200m and 4x100m, becoming the first woman to take four golds in a single Olympics.
Earning her the nickname "The Flying Housewife", her achievements crushed stereotypes and showed the world that female athletes could have a family while competing – and winning – at the highest level.
Reuters Blankers-Koen, pictured with Carl Lewis, remained in athletics after retiring
Although she made the Dutch squad for the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki at the age of 34, she was hampered by injury and it proved her final top level event.
After her athletic career came to an end Blankers-Koen served as team leader for the Dutch athletics team for 10 years.
She died on January 25, 2004, at the age of 85, after suffering from Alzheimer's disease in her later years.
Google Google celebrated the Autumn Equinox with a themed doodle
What is a Google Doodle?
In 1998, the search engine founders Larry and Sergey drew a stick figure behind the second 'o' of Google as a message to that they were out of office at the Burning Man festival and with that, Google Doodles were born.
The company decided that they should decorate the logo to mark cultural moments and it soon became clear that users really enjoyed the change to the Google homepage.
In that same year, a turkey was added to Thanksgiving and two pumpkins appeared as the 'o's for Halloween the following year.
MORE GOOGLE DOODLES SAVE THE WORLD Earth Day 2018 is marked by Google Doodle featuring Dr Jane Goodall DR DOLITTLE Get the lowdown on animal lover and conservationist Dr Jane Goodall SCREEN LEGEND Who was Omar Sharif and what were the Egyptian actor's biggest films? TIMELY INVENTION Google Doodle celebrates a clock-maker who revolutionised navigation TRAILBLAZER Who was Anandi Gopal Joshi? Google Doodle honours India's first female doctor
Now, there is a full team of doodlers, illustrators, graphic designers, animators and classically trained artists who help create what you see on those days.
Among the Doodles published in recent months were ones commemorating German scientist Robert Koch, Jan Ingenhousz (who discovered photosynthesis) and the 50th anniversary of kids coding languages being introduced.
In September last year, the search giant celebrated the Autumn Equinox , which marked the official ending of summer and the coming of autumn.
