I was two and a half years
when my mother was in the Olympic Games.
She kept her gold medals in an empty shoebox,
under the roof in the house,
because she didn't show them at all.
And so to the final itself,
with Great Britain, Canada, Australia,
Holland and Jamaica.
They're away, and in slow motion
Blankers-Koen moves into the lead.
On the left, Dorothy Manley challenges strongly.
Third from the right,
Strickland comes up with grim determination.
Once more it's a photo finish.
But there's no doubt about the winner -
Blankers-Koen of Holland in 11.9 seconds.
Dorothy Manley of Great Britain was runner-up
and Shirley Strickland of Australia third.
Kees Kooman.
For the athletes, Olympic Games in 1948
were even more important
than the Olympic Games of 2016,
since there were
no other championships on a global level.
And also because naturally, for many years,
sports had been overshadowed by World War II.
Many people continued to play sports,
as far as this was possible.
Women's sport was really considered a weird thing.
In those days they said it was dangerous,
there was a risk to become sterile,
all sorts of ridiculous stories regarding women.
There were all kinds of prejudices,
about age, for instance.
Her husband plays a very important part
in the success story of Fanny Blankers.
He was also her trainer, Jan Blankers.
So he was also the father of her two children,
which they had already by then.
Yes, this is Fanny Blankers.
My father had to support her to keep her alive,
because she was always...
She felt every little pain
and she didn't feel well
and he always had to support her,
to say, "Come on, you can do it",
and things like that.
Each morning I wake up at four, five o'clock
and I was so nervous here.
And then I took my breakfast
and after half and hour I went to the WC
and I...everything out.
Later on, the story was they asked me,
"Have you had your breakfast? Have you been to the WC?
"Now you have the chance to win another golden medal."
Fanny had to run, amongst others,
against Dorothy Manley, a British lady.
There was one Brit left in the finals.
Dorothy Manley and Shirley Strickland,
from Australia, were her most important competitors.
I was terribly nervous on the day of the final.
When I was called up into the tunnel
where we had to wait to come onto the track,
I always say to people, "If I could've run away,
"I would've done." I was so nervous
because I'd never competed
in anything of that size before.
It was my first international race.
My mother made my top and my trousers.
She had to be careful not to make the shorts
no more than four inches above the knee.
You weren't allowed... You had to measure them.
I managed to get a wonderful start.
I was a notoriously bad starter,
but on this occasion I was quite the reverse,
I got a wonderful start.
As I ran up the track,
I had a slight turn of my head,
a very, very little turn.
Why I did it, I shall never know,
but it even shows up on the film of the race,
that I did do it, to prove it.
It's another one of those instinctive things.
I was in the lane nearest to the crowd, lane six,
which to me was very disappointing,
because I would have loved to have been in the centre.
I suppose that's why I instinctively
turned my head to that direction.
Otherwise, I just ran
and got to the tape
and found out that I'd got second,
which, to me, was absolutely wonderful,
because I hadn't dreamed I would do anything like that.
The semifinal, I was doing well.
I was running fast, and others a little bit slowly.
And I was always afraid for my confidence,
and we had the final. I did not think I could win it
but people around me,
they said, "You can win the 100m."
And I said, "No, because the girls
"have not done their best and now they will do their best."
I had a good start
and I was running about 25m, 30m,
and then I thought, "I can win the 100m."
And I was so happy.
She was the only lady
to run under 12 seconds at the 100m.
She had a very beautiful,
a gazelle, a very elegant style.
She won gold at the 100m in 11.9.
After that, the 80m hurdles in 11.2.
The 200m she won in the pouring rain in 24.6
and in the sprint relay she had to make up for a delay
and there they won again.
Because Fanny, in 1948,
after winning four gold medals,
she became a sort of -
how can I put this correctly in Dutch? -
a sort of billboard for women's sport.
Like, look, a mother can also
become a four-time Olympic champion.
That's why she had a huge impact,
and she has been very important,
much more important than she could imagine then,
for the emancipation of mothers
and women in sports.
When she had a competition she took me with her
and I had to play in the sand
where the long jump or the high jump was.
She was always trying to win.
It didn't make her always a very pleasant person
because to win was the most important thing in life.
She was always competing.
(FANNY BLANKERS-KOEN WAS THE FIRST WOMAN)
(TO WIN FOUR OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALS)
(THE INTERNATIONAL PRESS REFERRED TO HER)
(WITH SEVERAL NICKNAMES: "FLYING HOUSEWIFE",)
("THE FLYING DUTCHMAM" AND "AMAZING FANNY")
(TOGETHER WITH CARL LEWIS SHE WAS APPOINTED)
(IN 1999 TOP ATHLETE OF THE 20TH CENTURY)
(ON THE LINE)