Fanny Blankers-Koen

Fanny Blankers-Koen
Fanny Blankers-Koen (1988)
Full name	Francina Elsje Blankers-Koen
nation	Netherlands
birthday	April 26, 1918
place of birth	Location Vuursche community Baarn
size	175 cm
Weight	63 kg
date of death	January 25, 2004
Place of death	Hoofddorp
Career
discipline	Sprint , hurdles , high jump , long jump
society	Sagitta
Medal table
Olympic games 4 × 0 × 0 × European championships 5 × 1 × 2 ×
Olympic games gold London 1948 100 m gold London 1948 200 m gold London 1948 80 m hurdles gold London 1948 4 × 100 m  European championships bronze Vienna 1938 100 m bronze Vienna 1938 200 m gold Oslo 1946 80 m hurdles gold Oslo 1946 4 × 100 m gold Brussels 1950 100 m gold Brussels 1950 200 m gold Brussels 1950 80 m hurdles silver Brussels 1950 4 × 100 m

Francina Elsje "Fanny" Blankers-Koen (born Koen ; born April 26, 1918 in Lage Vuursche Gemeinde Baarn ; † January 25, 2004 in Hoofddorp ) was a Dutch athlete who won four gold medals in sprint and hurdles at the 1948 Olympic Games . This makes her one of the six most successful athletes of all time in terms of the number of gold medals . ^{(As of 2016)}

Career

Fanny Koen only started athletics at the age of 16. Her trainer Jan Blankers , a former triple jumper , recognized her versatile talent. At the age of 18 she took part in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. There she took fifth place in the high jump competition . With the Dutch 4 x 100 meter relay, she was also fifth. At the European Championships in Vienna in 1938 , she was third over 100 meters and 200 meters. In 1943 she set new world records in the high jump with 1.71 m and in the long jump with 6.25 m. However, their most successful period only began after the Second World War. At the European Championships in 1946 , she won two gold medals in the 80 meter hurdles and with the 4 x 100 meter relay.

The high point of her career was the 1948 Olympic Games in London, where she became the event's superstar. She won four gold medals in the 100 meters, 200 meters, 80 meter hurdles and with the 4 x 100 meter relay. This is all the more remarkable since the mother of two only trained four hours a week at the time. As the reigning world record holder in both disciplines, she had to do without further starts in the long jump and high jump, as the regulations did not allow this. At that time she was nicknamed "The Flying Housewife" and "The Flying Dutchmam". For her performance, Blankers-Koen was honored with the Associated Press' Athlete of the Year award . To date, she is one of the few athletes who have received this award and who were or are not US citizens.

Almost as successful as in 1948 she was at the European Championships in 1950 with victories over 100 meters, 200 meters and 80 meters hurdles as well as a silver medal with the relay.

She ended her active sporting career in 1956. Fanny Blankers-Koen was 1.75 m tall and had a competition weight of 63 kg. She is considered one of the most successful athletes of all time. During her active time, she set 21 world records in six different disciplines. The international FBK Games , which are also named after her, have been held in Hengelo in the Fanny Blankers Koen Stadium since 1981 . In 1999, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) voted Blankers-Koen athlete of the century.

She spent the last years of her life in a nursing home in Hoofddorp, where she died on January 25, 2004 at the age of 85.

In 2012 she was inducted into the IAAF Hall of Fame .

literature

• Kees Kooman: Een koningin met mannenbenen. Fanny Blankers-Koen, atlete van de eeuw. Veen, Amsterdam 2003, ISBN 90-204-0820-8

Web links

Commons : Fanny Blankers-Koen  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Short biography on the IOC website
• In memoriam Fanny Blankers-Koen on the FBK Games website(German)
• The legendary "flying housewife" sport.orf.at, April 26, 2020
• Fanny Blankers-Koen in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://ard.ndr.de/peking2008/geschichte/1948/blankerskoen2.html