Fanny Blankers-Koen
A 30-year-old mother of two told to stay at home, she won four golds at the 1948 Olympics
Francina Koen grew up on a farm in the Netherlands and competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympics at 18, finishing sixth in the high jump. She married her coach, Jan Blankers, in 1940, just as the German occupation shut down international sport. She kept training in Amsterdam through the war, had two children, and set world records in events nobody outside the country saw.
By the time the Olympics returned in London in 1948 she was 30, and the Dutch press was not kind. Some said she was too old. Others thought a mother of two had no business running around in shorts, and one newspaper suggested she stay at home. She held world records in six events but the rules limited her to three individual entries, so she left out the high jump and long jump, both of which she probably would have won.
At a rain-soaked Wembley she won the 100 metres, the 200 metres and the 80 metres hurdles, then anchored the Dutch relay team to a fourth gold. At one point, homesick and crying, she wanted to withdraw, and her husband talked her into carrying on. The British press called her the Flying Housewife.
She came home to a horse-drawn carriage through Amsterdam and a bicycle from her neighbours, so she would not have to run so much. In 1999 the sport's governing body named her the greatest female athlete of the century.