Thursday, April 26, 2018

Schools : Girls in Sport : Fanny Blankers-Koen !






Fanny Blankers-Koen
credits: Getty Images
https://edition.cnn.com/


Fanny Blankers-Koen the Dutch track star's achievements in the 1948 London Olympics destroyed stereotypes about female athletes. Why?

On a rainy summer day in 1948, onlookers at London’s Wembley track saw an unexpected athlete make history. 

Dutch runner and 30-year-old mother of two Fanny Blankers-Koen outstrided her opponents in the women’s 200m by 0.7 seconds - the highest margin in Olympics 200m history and a record that still stands today.




Google Doodle Fanny Blankers-Koen's 100th Birthday

  • Google Doodle:

Google Doodle honors her 100th anniversary today, April 26, which is almost 70 years after her achievements at the 1948 Olympics.

Google celebrates with a Doodle 'that imagines her racing down the track, smiling mid-stride'.

  • Some biographical notes:

Born near Baarn, the Netherlands, in 1918, in Lage Vuursche, a small village in the Netherlands, Francina Elsje Koen, later Fanny Blankers-Koen, Nicknamed the Flying Housewifehad set a national record for the women’s 800m by age 17. At 18, she competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, placing fifth in the 4x100m and sixth in high jump.





Blankers-Koen  in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin
credits: Times Newspaper LTD

Two years later Fanny she ran her first world record (11.0 seconds in the 100 yards) and picked up her first medals at the European Championships. 

The next Olympics were cancelled due to the outbreak of World War II and in 1940, Fanny married her trainer Mr Blankers.

Dutch media automatically assumed Fanny’s career was over when she had her first child in 1941, but she resumed training just weeks after her son’s birth. She had a second child.




Blankers-Koen family
credits: Ben van Meerendonk / AHF, collectie IISG, Amsterdam

Blankers-Koen set six new world records competing in German-occupied Holland, between 1942 and 1944, in hurdles, high jump and long jump as well as tying in the 100m with a male athlete, which meant her achievement was never recognized. 

Despite the lack of available food due to the war, the mother kept forging ahead with her race times, though she had a slight setback in 1946 after having her second child.

In 1947 she won national titles in six women’s events, meaning she was assured of a place on the Dutch team for the first post-war Olympics, held in London, limiting herself this time to four events. 






Despite criticism from many people saying she should stay home instead of competing, Blankers-Koen decided to race in the 1948 London Games.

She came home from the 1948 Olympics with four gold medals, being the first woman to do so, and all in one year. They were for the 100m, the 200m, the 80m hurdles and the 4×100 m relay.




200m in London Olympics 1948 
credits: Bettmann/Getty Images


She was 30-years-old when her incredible feats on the running track led her to be labelled ‘the flying housewife’.

In 1947 she won national titles in six women’s events, meaning she was assured of a place on the Dutch team for the first post-war Olympics, held in London, limiting herself this time to four events. 




Blankers-Koen family

Back in her home country Fanny Blankers-Koen was greeted as a hero, made a knight of the Order of Orange Nassau, showered with gifts and driven through the streets by four white horses. 

Fanny competed in two more Olympic Games and her last ever winning event was the shot put in August 1955, her 58th Dutch title, before spending the rest of her life promoting women’s athletics.

She was also the team leader of the Dutch athletics team, from the 1958 European Championships to the 1968 Summer Olympics.




Fanny Blankers-Koen
European Champions

The athlete recalled in 1982: ‘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 died in 2004 at the age of 85.

Her amazing life, and the victory’s changed so many perspectives on women’s abilities.

Though Blankers-Koen is one of the most decorated female athletes of the 20th century, she remains largely forgotten by history. 




Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images

Education:

Recent studies found that children spend less than four minutes a day in “unstructured outdoor play.” This secluded lifestyle is causing emotional, educational, and physical consequences, including obesity. 

Health organizations recommends school-age children do at least an hour of exercise each day. Schools offer quite a broad spectrum of activities. But lots of the girls are still turned off by it.
New research with 25,000 secondary students in England and Northern Ireland suggests that, at secondary level, only 8% of girls manage this.

Of the teenagers, surveyed by Youth Sport Trust and Women in Sport (UK) more than 80% understood the importance of being active but almost half of boys and nearly two-thirds of girls were less than keen on taking part themselves.

We all know that sports are necessary in education. And outdoor sports better. Girls don't like so much sports at school. But now, every day we read about young girls in competition: Olympics games and championships are good motivation.




Telma Monteiro, Judo, Portugal
12th World ranking/  12 medals
credits: Inácio Rosa/ LUSA

Remember  Chloe Kim/ Gold Medal (US) at the Winter Olympic Games 2018, last February or Telma Monteiro (Portugal) at the Olympic Games 2016 or Francesca Jones (GB) at Junior Wimbledon 2016 or Suzanne Lengler (France) among so many other young girls and women who brake down barriers through their passionate play, and fight for their dreams outs poking stance against the sport’s formalities!

I think Fanny Blankers-Koen changing many perspectives on women’s abilities is a perfect hero to motivate girls to a healthy outdoor life! And why not to be the next "flying girl"?

"All I've done is run fast," (...) "I don't see why people should make much fuss about that."

Fanny Blankers-Koen

G-Souto

26.04.2018

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Schools : Girls in Sports : Fanny Blankers-Koen  ! by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

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