Blankers-Koen Wins Fourth Gold Medal.

Blankers-Koen Wins Fourth Gold Medal. Dutch athlete Fanny Blankers-Koen became the first female track superstar in 1948. In the Olympic Games that year, she took home four gold medals, matching the record four gold medals that her hero, American track-and-field athlete Jesse Owens, had earned in the 1936 Olympics. . Blankers-Koen Wins Fourth Gold By August 1948, Fanny Blankers-Koen had spent virtually every spare moment of the prior 12 years training to become the most decorated track-and-field athlete in the history of the Olympic Games. The Dutch athlete trained in spite of detractors who wanted her to remain in the traditional role assigned to women. "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," Blankers-Koen told the New York Times in 1982. "And some said I was too old to win a medal. I said, 'Well, we'll see about that.'" During a tumultuous seven-day stretch, Blankers-Koen won four gold medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, England. Her production doubled the previous women's track-and-field record established by American Babe Didrikson in 1932. It tied the overall record set by her idol, American runner Jesse Owens, in 1936. Blankers-Koen almost certainly would have won two more gold medals if not for an Olympic rule limiting the number of events each competitor could enter. Blankers-Koen joined the Dutch national team and in 1936 competed in the Olympics in Berlin, Germany. She went home without a medal, having placed fifth in a relay race and sixth in the high jump. She did, however, leave Germany with an autograph from Jesse Owens. "I saw him stand on the winner's platform four times," Blankers-Koen told Ira Berkow of the New York Times in 1982. "I wished that I could stand on the platform--even for second or third place." Because World War II scuttled the 1940 and 1944 Olympics, 12 years passed before Blankers-Koen got that chance. She continued training, however, with the help of her coach and husband, Jan Blankers. Despite hardships caused by the war, Blankers-Koen kept in shape any way she could. Usually, she just ran through the woods. In addition, she had to balance the full-time responsibilities of motherhood with her athletic goals. Blankers-Koen's training sessions sometimes consisted of several hours on the track while her two small children, Jantje and Fanneke, played nearby in a sandbox. During the 12-year Olympic intermission, she set six world records. At the 1946 European Games she won the 80-meter hurdles and was a member of the winning 4 x 100-meter relay team. Blankers-Koen arrived at the 1948 Olympic Games in London the oldest of the track-and-field competitors. Although most analysts and sportswriters considered her past her prime, the 30-year-old sprinter was in peak physical condition. Her 5-foot-9-inch, 140-pound frame rippled with muscle tone. Her long-legged stride was something to behold. An enormous crowd at Wembley Stadium watched Blankers-Koen win her first event, the 100-meter dash on August 2. Two days later she bolted to a photo-finish victory in the 80-meter hurdles, nudging England's Maureen Gardner, an erstwhile ballet teacher. The rudimentary timing equipment of the era awarded each woman a world-record time of 11.2 seconds. Exerting some creative license, Jan Blankers wrote in his column in a Rotterdam newspaper: "The world's best hurdler has won. But it hung by a hair, and even now my heart hasn't got back to beating normally." After running a preliminary 200-meter race, Blankers-Koen collapsed, suffering from inordinate mental, not physical, strain. "Even though I had won two gold medals, I was very depressed. The press would not stop questioning me, and I got even sadder after talking to my children in Amsterdam, who said they missed me," she told the New York Times. "I told my husband, 'I want to go home.' He said, 'All right, but, Fanny, you'll be sorry. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance, and someone with your ability should do as much as you can.'" A long cry in the locker room served as an emotional release. On August 6, Blankers-Koen won the 200 meters, garnering her third gold medal and surpassing Didrikson as the Olympic's most decorated women's track-and-field competitor. The margin of victory over second-place Audrey Williamson of England was 6 meters. Blankers-Koen's final event was the 4 x 100-meter relay. Her decision to enter the race revealed much about her character. Under Olympic rules, she could enter a maximum of four events. Even though she owned the world records for the long jump and high jump, she instead opted for the relay. She explained that a "team" victory would hold more meaning to her country and its citizens. Blankers-Koen's superb anchor leg clinched Holland's victory. Meanwhile, in the long jump, Hungary's Olga Gyarmati won the gold medal with a jump 21.5 in (54.6 cm) shy of Blankers-Koen's standard of 20 ft, 5? in (6.24 m). With four golds, Blankers-Koen's haul represented nearly half of the total track-and-field medals awarded to women in that Olympics. She almost single-handedly delivered the unofficial team championship for the Netherlands. Blankers-Koen had left her country a virtual unknown. She returned a hero. A national holiday was declared and a lavish parade was thrown. She and her family rode through Amsterdam in an open carriage drawn by four horses. A new Dutch rose was named for her. She received more than a thousand letters and telegrams, and countless autograph requests. "When I came home I couldn't believe what was there. All I've done is run fast. I don't quite see why people should make so much fuss about that," she said to Ira Berkow in 1982. Then, shifting to a deeper issue, she added: "I couldn't help thinking how different these streets were from just a few years before. I cried. This was the first celebration in my country since the war." Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.