it was during this time that koen married the Duth women’s track coach, Jan Blankers, and had first child.
They allowed women to compete in some track-and-field evens,but in no more than three individual event.
In 1935, when Koen was only 17, she set a national record in the 800-meter race.
The talented Koen then took part in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
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.