She won the 100- and 200-meter sprints, the 80-meter hurdles and the 4x100-meter relay in London when she was 30 and a mother of two children. Her record four gold medals for a woman still stands.

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

"Shortly before the Games my children were really missing me," she said. "I wanted to leave London. I was crying in the changing rooms. But my husband got me motivated again, assuring me I would never forgive myself if I withdrew."

Blankers would almost certainly have won more than four titles if she had been allowed to compete in more than three individual events at the Games as the winning marks in the long jump and high jump were well behind her world record marks.

The Japan Times Weekly: Jan. 31, 2004
(C) All rights reserved