it was during this time that koen married the Duth women’s track coach, Jan Blankers, and had first child.
Koen was an athlete, but she was also a conventional wife and mother of the time.
She might have won more, but the rules still only allowed her to compete in three individual, the Dutch had forgiven her.
Why, then, did people disapprove when runner Fany Blankers-Koen, a thirty-year-old Dutch mother with young children, competed in the Olympics?
Her natural athleticism was encouraged.