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LOGO Calendar 2026 – July: Fanny Blankers-Koen
Women who were mothers were not supposed to compete. An unwritten rule – one no one had ever dared to challenge, until the courage of Fanny Blankers-Koen, a symbol of the rise and recognition of women’s athletics.
Fanny was the champion who shattered the taboo surrounding mothers in sport. The protagonist of an outstanding and exceptionally long sporting career – competing in three Olympic Games – she made history at the 1948 London Summer Olympics, where she raced while pregnant with her third child and won four gold medals.
An extraordinary achievement which nevertheless earned her the nickname “The Flying Housewife”, a sign of the widespread prejudice of the time.
A versatile talent, the Dutch athlete set records in several disciplines, helping to transform a sporting world long dominated by men and shaped by deeply rooted biases. Even Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games, believed women should have no place in competition. On the eve of the first Games in 1896, the proposal to include them was rejected. Born in 1918, Fanny Blankers-Koen began her sporting career alternating between athletics and swimming.
At 17, she made a decisive choice and devoted herself entirely to athletics, immediately setting the Dutch record in the 800 metres in 1935, a distance that was little contested at the time. Since the event was not included in the upcoming 1936 Berlin Olympics, she soon turned her attention to other disciplines. In Berlin she finished fifth in the high jump and fifth with the Dutch 4×100 relay team. After her first Olympic experience, she decided to narrow her focus further. Devoting herself entirely to sprinting, she won two bronze medals at the 1938 European Championships, finishing third in both the 100 and 200 metres.
At that point her Olympic ambitions had grown significantly – but they were abruptly halted by the Second World War. The Nazi occupation of the Netherlands made everything more difficult. Yet Fanny Blankers-Koen not only continued to compete; she also gave birth to her first child, returning to training just a few weeks later. Between 1942 and 1944, she set new world records in the 80-metre hurdles, the high jump and the long jump, defying predictions in the Dutch press, which had quickly declared the end of her brilliant sporting career because of motherhood.
Her break from competition was longer towards the end of the war – not only because she gave birth to her second daughter, but also because during the winter of 1944–45, the Nazis, who still occupied the Netherlands, left the population with almost no access to essential food supplies.
The first major post-war event was the 1946 European Championships in Oslo. Fanny Blankers-Koen won the 80-metre hurdles and, with the Netherlands, the 4×100 relay. She also finished fourth in the long jump, while she was eliminated in the 100-metre semi-final.
With these credentials, Fanny was the natural favourite for the 1948 Olympic Games. However, many people still failed to give her the credit she deserved, considering her too old and too much of a mother. At thirty years old and with two children, Fanny quickly proved them wrong.
In London she fully lived up to her reputation. She won the 100 metres with ease and the 200 metres even more convincingly, while she had to fight hard to claim her third individual gold medal, in the 80-metre hurdles. She then made a decisive contribution to the Netherlands’ victory in the 4×100 relay. Running the final leg, she surged from third place to first, sealing the win.
At a time when women were still fighting to assert their rights, the victories of the Dutch athlete struck a powerful blow against prejudice and stereotypes, while also giving fresh momentum to the feminist movement. Fanny had become a voice for women in sport, demonstrating that female athletes could achieve levels of excellence equal to those of men.
She repeated her individual treble at the 1950 European Championships in Brussels, while the relay team of which she was part finished second. Her luck was less favourable at the 1952 Olympic Games, but she continued competing until 1955 when, once again demonstrating her versatility, she retired after winning the Dutch national title in the shot put.
In 1999, the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) named her “Female Athlete of the Century”.
Thanks to her triumphs, Fanny became an international inspiration, establishing herself (unintentionally) as a role model for athletes and for women everywhere, helping to broaden the debate on female emancipation and gender equality.
Even today she is regarded not only as an Olympic champion but also as a pillar of sporting feminism, a woman capable of breaking down prejudice and paving the way for generations of female athletes.
“All I did was run fast. I don’t see why people should make such a fuss about it.”