Francina Elsje "Fanny" Blankers-Koen was a Dutch track and field athlete, best known for winning four gold medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. She competed there as a 30-year-old mother of two, earning her the nickname "the Flying Housewife", and was the most successful athlete at the event.
Fanny Blankers-Koen in 1949
Fanny with her husband Jan Blankers after the war in 1948.
Blankers-Koen won the 80 m hurdles at the 1947 Dutch Championships in Amsterdam.
Blankers winning the 100 m final at the 1948 Summer Olympics
The 1948 Summer Olympics were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus caused by the outbreak of World War II, these were the first Summer Olympics held since the 1936 Games in Berlin. The 1940 Olympic Games had been scheduled for Tokyo and then for Helsinki, while the 1944 Olympic Games had been provisionally planned for London. This was the second time London hosted the Olympic Games, having previously hosted them in 1908, forty years earlier. The Olympics would return again to London 64 years later in 2012, making London the first city to host the games thrice, and the only such city until Paris and Los Angeles host their third games in 2024 and 2028, respectively. The 1948 Olympic Games were also the first of two summer Games held under the IOC presidency of Sigfrid Edström.
1948 London Olympic medals being minted at the works of John Pinches in Clapham
The XIV Olympic Games opens in London, 1948
Start of the 50 km walk
Gold medalist William Grut of Sweden (foreground) competing in the running component of the modern pentathlon.