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Dutch athletics legend Fanny Blankers-Koen has died in a nursing home aged 85 after suffering from serious heart and brain problems over the past few years, her daughter revealed on Sunday.

U.S. champion Carl Lewis, left, and Dutch champion Fanny Blankers-Koen, elected Athletes of the Century, pose for photographers, before the IAAF (International Association of Athletic Federation) World Athletics Gala in Monaco, Nov. 21,1999. [AP/File]

Blankers-Koen, known as the 'flying housewife' and who was named athlete of the 20th century by the sport's governing body the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in 1999, won four gold medals at the 1948 Olympics in London.

She won the 100m, 200m, 80m hurdles and the 4x100m relay in London and is the only female athlete to have won four Olympic titles at the same games.

However as she later confessed her remarkable haul almost never came about.

"Shortly before the Games my children were really missing me," she said referring to the two children she had with her husband and coach Jan Blankers during World War II.

"I wanted to leave London and go back to them. I was crying in the changing rooms. But my husband got me motivated again, assuring me I would never forgive myself if I opted to withdraw," added Blankers, who would almost certainly have won more than four titles if she had been allowed to compete in more than three individual events as the winning marks in the long jump and high jump were well below her world records.

She went on to win three European titles at the 1950 championships and held 16 world records as well as winning 58 national titles mainly in the sprints but also in long jump and pentathlon.

Athletics was not the first sport she took up. She tried swimming, gymnastics and fencing first, but she took up track and field at the request of her father.

Her life changed when she met Blankers. He first became her coach and then her husband during World War II, and she even carried on training when she was pregnant - with both of her children.

The blonde's first experience of the Olympics came in the 1936 Games held in Berlin where she finished fifth in the 4x100m relay and sixth in the long jump.

She showed her increasing prowess when, in 1938, she set her first world record, in the 100 yards, running it in 11 seconds flat, and again during the war when she set new marks in the 80-yard hurdles, the high jump and broke her 100-yard mark with a 10.8 second finish.

She set new world marks in the pentathlon at age 33 in 1951 and a national title in the shot put in 1955.

But her last Olympics, in Helsinki in 1952, ended ignominiously when she fell in the 80-yard hurdles.

Her funeral will take place on Thursday.

"The whole athletics world mourns the parting of this great ambassador for our sport, whose career feats have yet to be matched, a fact which was reflected in her election in 1999 as the greatest female athlete of the 20th century," said IAAF president Lamine Diack.

In a ceremony at the World Athletics Gala in November 1999, Blankers-Koen along with Carl Lewis of the US received their awards as the top athletes of the 20th century.

Members of the Dutch political and sports elite mourned her passing and praised the legacy of this woman who was affectionately known as "the flying housewife" because she was already a mother of two when she made history at the 1948 Games.

"Fanny Blankers-Koen has played an important role in the emancipation of women in the sports world," Dutch junior health minister Clemence Ross-van Dorp was quoted as saying by the ANP news agency. "She delivered her greatest performance at the time when was a mother," he said.

Greatest ever

Anton Geesink, Dutch Olympic and world judo champion, was quoted in local media as saying her passing was a great loss. He praised her as "one of the Netherlands' greatest athletes ever."

Fedde Zwanenburg, director of the FBK Games, the country's largest international track and field event, said Blankers-Koen would be remembered with great esteem and promised a special celebration in honour of her contributions to the sport at this year's event.

Often called the female equivalent of Jesse Owens, Blankers-Koen made her first appearance in the Olympics in 1936, at aged 18, placing sixth in the high jump and fifth in the 4x100m relay.

World War II wiped out the 1940 and 1944 Olympics, but in London in 1948 Blankers-Koen took gold in the 80-metre hurdles, the 100 metres, the 200 metres and the 4x100 metres relay.

In a career spanning nearly two decades she set or equalled 20 world records, covering sprint races and hurdles, the high jump and long jump, as well as the pentathlon. She also won five European titles and 58 Dutch titles.

At the 1999 awards ceremony, Blankers-Koen, then aged 81, reacted with astonishment, saying: "You mean it is me who has won. I had no idea.

"When I think of all the great women athletes of this century and the young people who are doing so well, I must say that I am surprised but quite pleased as well."

She added: "I can still remember every detail of every heat and final in London. Thankfully, my memories are still very vivid."

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