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
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1/93 Fanny Blankers-Koen Google Doodle celebrating Fanny Blankers-Koen Google
2/93 Omar Sharif Google Doodle celebrating Omar Sharif Google
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4/93 John Harrison Google Doodle celebrating John Harrison Google
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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.
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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
Google’s homepage Thursday features a new doodle: a drawing of a blonde woman running around a track. Click on the doodle, and you’re taken to the results page for Fanny Blankers-Koen, a Dutch track and field athlete who would have celebrated her 100th birthday Thursday.
While she might not be a household name for many, the athlete is a hero to many track and field fans, and was a standout competitor at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. There, she won four gold medals — in the 100m and 200m races — as well as the 4×100 m relay and the 80m hurdles.
Though Blankers-Koen eventually got her moment in the international spotlight in London, it was postponed due to the ongoing conflict of World War II. Even before the war, she had established herself as one of the greatest runners of her time: She competed in the 1936 Olympics at 18 years old, and went on to set her first world record in 1938.
After winning two bronze medals at the 1938 European Championships, she seemed set for success at the upcoming 1940 Olympics in Helsinki. But when World War II ravaged Europe, athletic competition faded from the global stage, and the Olympics were cancelled.
Fanny Blankers-Koen Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images
During World War II, Blankers-Koen married fellow runner Jan Blankers, and gave birth to her first child, a son, in 1941. It was widely assumed that the birth of her child meant that Blankers-Koen’s athletic career was finished, as it was incredibly rare for a competing athlete to have children.
Despite that, as well as the fact that in her home city of Amsterdam food shortages during Nazi occupation made training and race preparation difficult, she continued to compete — setting several more world records throughout the length of World War II.
By the time the war was over, and the Olympics were back on in 1948, there was still doubt that she would compete: At 30 years old, not only was she older than many of her competitors, but she also now had two young children at home. The Guardian reports that there was a widespread public view that she should not be competing at the Olympics, but rather watching her children at home.
Fanny Blankers-Koen Bettmann/Getty
But Blankers-Koen ignored her critics, and the women who earned the nickname “The Flying Housewife” went onto win four gold medals and a place in athletic history. When she returned home to Amsterdam, it was to welcoming crowds and a gift in the form of a brand-new bicycle.
“All I’ve done is run fast,” she said after returning home, according to CNN. “I don’t see why people should make much fuss about that.”
Still today, Blankers-Koen — who was named the female “Athlete of the Century” by International Association of Athletics Federations in 1999 — holds a place in the record books: She is still the only woman to have won four track and field gold medals in a single Olympics, according to CNN.
She died at the age of 85 in 2004.
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
