FASTEST WOMAN RUNNER IN THE WORLD SEEKS "PEACE"

Wanganui Chronicle, 28 October 1948, Page 8

FASTEST WOMAN RUNNER IN THE WORLD SEEKS "PEACE"

Fanny Blankers-Koen; Many Countries Compete For Visits From Her

The boy of six and girl of two and a-lialf play in the sandpits while their mother does her twice-weekly running training at the stadium near her home. But Fanny Blankcrs-Koen." holder of five world athletic records, likes most of all “peace and quiet . . . . 1 want to get away from the crowds and go home.’’

That will probably not happen yet awhile, for other count lies may soon see this amazing mother who shone so brilliantly at the latest Olympiad. Jan Fulmar here tells something of the 30-year-old athlete’s home background today. Many countries are competing for visits by Fanny Blankers-Koen, fastest woman runner in the world. It is almost certain that she will visit Australia next year and no doubt there will be other trips to follow. NOW 30 YEARS OLD. Though she is now 30, Fanny will not be allowed to hang up her running shoes just yet, it the sporting public of the world has its way. Her amazing performances at the recent London Olympics turned the attention of the world to women athletes like nothing that had gone before, not even the feats of the famous American “Babe” Didrikson or the Pole S. Walasiewicz. She carried off the 100 metres sprint the 80 metres hurdles in a new world record time, and on a track covered with pools of water eclipsed all other runners in the 200 metres. Had she entered for the long and high jumps, in which events she is also world record holder, there is little doubt that she would have won these and have become the first competitor ever to win five Olympic titles. But for all her athletic prowess, for all the world, admiration, Fanny Blankers-Koen prefers the role of an ordinary housewife. When she returned to her home here after her Wembley triumphs and saw the cheering crowds of thousands of her fellowcountrymen, her first remark was: “Why all this fuss? It was only my legs that did it.” Yet she is preparing to set out on a journey that will take her round the world just to show millions more who could not get to Wembley last August exactly how fast those same legs will carry her over the ground. HER FAMILY’S SAKE. She goes not for the love of fame, not for the adulation of the crowds, but because it was her husband who made her a world-beater and because her two small children derive so much pleasure from her successes. Actually, she is so highly strung that each race she runs takes its toll of her nervous strength. After her great victory in the 80 metres hurdles at the Olympic Games, in which she was run to the closest of photofinishes by the young English girl Maureen Gardner, she went back to her hotel in tears. “I will not race tomorrow,” she told her husband. “I shall never be

able to race again.” It was not un.il late that night that her husband was able to make her change her mina. Yet he it was who persuaded her to withdraw from the long and high jumps. Fanny was born at a farm at Baarn in Holland. She had four brothers, all more than six feet tall and all athletes. Her lather was afi»u an enthusiast for sports, and in his youth had been an excellent shotputter and discus-thrower. The young girl was introduced to athletes at the age of 16, and it was at the stadium that she met her future husband the trainer Jan Blankers, also six feet tall and a former Dutch hop-step, and jump champion. Under his guidance she gradually built up her amazing speed, which has since brought her times that compare favourably with those of men runners of the highest class. They lived after their marriage, and still do, in a modest, four-roomed Hat on the outskirts of Amsterdam, t It has the great advantage of being I only 15 minutes’ walk from the stadium where she trains. Her husband is a professional athlete and trainer. Their two children are the boy Jan, who is now six and an enthusiastic fisherman, and Fanny, junior, who is two and a half. They always go with their father and mother to the stadium to play in the sandpits while Mrs. Fanny is running. LITTLE FANNY LIKE HER MOTHER. “Little Fanny is going to be a runner like her mother," says the lather. “Already she is running all over the house. Jan is sturdier and should be a fine jumper when he grows up.” “I do not train a lot," says Fanny. “Twice a week I go running, but I like lots of sleep. “I do my own housework and look after the children without extra help. I don’t smoke—l tried it once, but did not like it. I drink sometimes, and it does not do me any harm. “But, most of all. 1 like peace and quiet. I want to get away from the crowds and go home.” There is little chance that she will get her wish just yet. Though her husband thinks that it will soon be time for her to retire as an athlete—“the time to retire is when you are at the peak of your form,” he says—the clamour of the world’s crowds will drive her on to new success and new records. So the tall, fair-haired Dutchwoman, who wants just to stay at home cooking, making her children’s clothes, knitting, reading and playing occasional games of bridge, will carry the orange singlet of Holland round many more running tracks. Who knows but that the five world records she now holds may not be increased before next year is out?