Fanny Blankers-Koen thereby became the first Dutch athlete to win an Olympic title in athletics, but she was more concerned with her next event, the 80 m hurdles.

A year before her death, the first biography of Blankers-Koen was published, Een koningin met mannenbenen ( A Queen with men's legs ) by journalist Kees Kooman.

Wembley was the main athletics venue for the 1948 Summer Olympics, with Fanny Blankers-Koen and Emil Zátopek among the notable winners.

Born Jeannette Josephina Maria Timmer in Amsterdam her greatest success was when she won the gold medal in the 4 x 100 metres relay at the 1948 Summer Olympics, together with Xenia Stad-de Jong, Gerda van der Kade-Koudijs and Fanny Blankers-Koen.

Born Gerda Koudijs in Rotterdam, her greatest success was winning the gold medal in the 4 x 100 m relay at the 1948 Summer Olympics, together with Xenia Stad-de Jong, Netty Witziers-Timmer, and Fanny Blankers-Koen.

During war domestic sports competition continued in German-occupied Holland, and Blankers-Koen would set six new world records from 1942 – 44.

Six weeks before the Championships, Blankers-Koen gave birth to Fanny Junior, but this had not stopped her from resuming training shortly afterwards.

After her athletic career, Blankers-Koen served as the team leader of the Dutch athletics team, from the 1958 European Championships to the 1968 Summer Olympics.

Just prior to the invasion, Koen had become engaged, and on 29 August 1940, she married Jan Blankers, thereby changing her name to Blankers-Koen.

When Blankers-Koen gave birth to her first child Jan Junior in 1941, Dutch media automatically assumed her career would be over.

Blankers-Koen and her husband had other plans, and she resumed training only weeks after their son's birth.

Blankers-Koen sped to the finish line in 11. 9, easily beating her opponents Dorothy Manley and Shirley Strickland, who took second and third.

In spite of her successes, Blankers-Koen nearly failed to start in the semi-finals of the 200 m, held the day after hurdles final.

On 7 August 1955, Fanny Blankers-Koen was victorious for the last time, winning the national title in the shot put, her 58th Dutch title.

Among the minor medallists was Fanny Blankers-Koen, who won the first international medals of her highly successful career.

* April 26 – Fanny Blankers-Koen, Dutch athlete ( d. 2004 )

** Fanny Blankers-Koen, Dutch athlete ( b. 1918 )

One of the star performers at the Games was Dutch sprinter Fanny Blankers-Koen.

Francina " Fanny " Elsje Blankers-Koen ( – ) was a Dutch athlete, best known for winning four gold medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London.

Although international competition was hampered by World War II, Blankers-Koen set several world records during that period, in events as diverse as the long jump, the high jump, and sprint and hurdling events.

Blankers-Koen was born Francina Elsje Koen on 26 April 1918 in Lage Vuursche ( near Baarn ) to Arnoldus and Helena Koen.

Despite this, Blankers-Koen managed to break the world record in May 1944.

As the leading athlete in the Netherlands — in 1947 she won national titles in 6 events — Blankers-Koen was assured of a place on the Dutch team for the first post-war Olympics, held at Wembley Stadium in west London.

When the British national anthem was played, the crowd in Wembley Stadium cheered, and Blankers-Koen briefly thought she had been beaten.

Examination of the finish photo clearly showed that not Gardner, but Blankers-Koen had won, although both received the same time ( 11. 2s ).

The final, on 6 August, was again held in the pouring rain, but Blankers-Koen completed the inaugural Olympic 200 m for women in 24. 4, seven tenths of a second ahead of runner-up Audrey Williamson — still the largest margin of victory in an Olympic 200 m final.

The Dutch team, consisting of Xenia Stad-de Jong, Netty Witziers-Timmer, Gerda van der Kade-Koudijs and Blankers-Koen qualified for the final, but just before the final, Blankers-Koen was missing.

Fanny Blankers-Koen won four of the nine women's events at the 1948 Olympics, competing in 11 heats and finals in 8 days.

Now known all over the world, Blankers-Koen received many offers for endorsements, advertisements, publicity stunts and the like.

Even his old literary home, Punch, where the When We Were Very Young verses had first appeared, was ultimately to reject him, as Christopher Milne details in his autobiography The Enchanted Places, although Methuen continued to publish whatever Milne wrote, including the long poem ' The Norman Church ' and an assembly of articles entitled Year In, Year Out ( which Milne likened to a benefit night for the author ).

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In addition to Triumphant Democracy ( 1886 ), and The Gospel of Wealth ( 1889 ), he also wrote An American Four-in-hand in Britain ( 1883 ), Round the World ( 1884 ), The Empire of Business ( 1902 ), The Secret of Business is the Management of Men ( 1903 ), James Watt ( 1905 ) in the Famous Scots Series, Problems of Today ( 1907 ), and his posthumously published autobiography Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie ( 1920 ).

In the 15th century, Leonor López de Córdoba, a Spanish noblewoman, wrote her Memorias, which may be the first autobiography in Castillian.

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In 1986, Morita wrote an autobiography titled Made in Japan.

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Watterson wrote a brief, tongue-in-cheek autobiography in the late 1980s.

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In 2000, Charles wrote his first autobiography about his experiences growing up in Liverpool, titled No Irish, No Niggers.

Finally, he wrote an eight-volume autobiography that Suetonius describes as lacking in taste.

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Caligula's sister, Agrippina the Younger, wrote an autobiography that certainly included a detailed explanation of Caligula's reign, but it too is lost.

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Benjamin Franklin wrote in his autobiography, " Some books against Deism fell into my hands ; they were said to be the substance of sermons preached at Boyle's lectures.

He wrote in his autobiography that he received more fan mail about his role as Mr. Freeze than about all of his other roles combined.

Douglass wrote several autobiographies, eloquently describing his experiences in slavery in his 1845 autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, which became influential in its support for abolition.

Despite his lack of formal education, he wrote many books, including his autobiography, Groucho and Me ( 1959 ) and Memoirs of a Mangy Lover ( 1963 ).

" There was always music in our house ," Gaynor wrote in her autobiography, I Will Survive.

" All through my young life I wanted to sing, although nobody in my family knew it ," Gaynor wrote in her autobiography.

He also wrote an autobiography – not, apparently, a work of great length or revelation, but designed to scotch various rumours or explain his various actions.

He wrote in his autobiography:

Although Trotsky stated in his autobiography My Life that he was never perfectly fluent in any language but Russian and Ukrainian, Raymond Molinier wrote that Trotsky spoke fluent French.