AMSTERDAM, 26 January 2004 — Dutchwoman Fanny Blankers-Koen, voted in 1999 the female athlete of the 20th century, died yesterday at the age of 85.
Blankers-Koen, known as the ‘flying housewife’, won four gold medals in the 1948 Olympics in London, a record for a woman at a single Games.
The International Association of Athletics Federations in a statement on its website yesterday hailed the Dutchwoman as “the world’s greatest ever female athlete.” IAAF President Lamine Diack said: “The whole athletics world mourns the parting of this great ambassador for our sport whose career feats have yet to be matched, a fact which was reflected in her election in 1999 as the greatest female athlete of the 20th century.”
In a ceremony at the World Athletics Gala in November 1999, Blankers-Koen along with Carl Lewis of the US received their awards as the top athletes of the 20th century. Often called the female equivalent of Jesse Owens, Blankers-Koen made her first appearance in the Olympics in 1936, at aged 18, placing joint fifth in the high jump and fifth in the 4x100m relay. World War II wiped out the 1940 and 1944 Olympics, but in London in 1948 Blankers-Koen took gold in the 80-meter hurdles, the 100 meters, the 200 meters and the 4x100 meters relay.
In a career spanning nearly two decades, she set 20 world records, covering sprint races and hurdles, high jump and long jump, as well as the pentathlon. She also won five European titles.
At the 1999 awards ceremony, Blankers-Koen, then aged 81, reacted with astonishment, saying: “You mean it is me who has won. I had no idea.
“When I think of all the great women athletes of this century and the young people who are doing so well, I must say that I am surprised but quite pleased as well.”
