FANNY BLANKERS-KOEN, who won four gold medals at the 1948 London Olympics and who was chosen by the world governing body as the woman athlete of the 20th century, died yesterday at the age of 85. Blankers-Koen, the so-called “flying housewife” from the Netherlands, achieved unprecedented acclaim for a woman athlete with her successes at Wembley Stadium, yet she would have stopped at two gold medals had she had her way.

When Blankers-Koen was presented with her IAAF athlete of the century award in Monte Carlo in November 1999, she told how Jan Blankers, her late husband, had needed to persuade her to continue after she had won the 100 metres and 80 metres hurdles. “I’d had enough,” she said. “I had two children and wanted to go home. I was crying, but my husband said I would be sorry afterwards.”

Blankers-Koen took Jan’s advice and claimed further victories in the 200 metres and 4 x 100 metres relay.

Born in Amsterdam in 1918, Blankers-Koen started out as an 800 metres runner, but she appeared in her first Olympics in 1936 as a high jumper and sprint relay runner, finishing fifth in both. The Second World War deprived her of two further Olympic appearances, but she more than compensated in London, where, at 30, she competed 11 times in heats and finals over eight days and never lost.

Between 1938 and 1958, Blankers-Koen set world records in seven individual events: the 100 yards, 100 metres, 220 yards, 80 metres hurdles, high jump, long jump and pentathlon. She also won eight medals in three European Championships.

Perhaps through modesty, Blankers-Koen said that she did not regard herself as the greatest woman athlete. She said that she thought that honour belonged to Florence Griffith-Joyner, winner of three Olympic gold medals and still world record holder at 100 metres and 200 metres, although she died in 1998 in circumstances linked to drug use.

Blankers-Koen was prepared to overlook speculation that Griffith-Joyner’s running may have been drug assisted. The heroine of 1948 came from an age of innocence. “Doping? We did not know the word,” she said. Her determination at Wembley had been fuelled not by a pharmacist but by Jack Crump, the Great Britain team manager, who had said that she was too old to succeed.

Suffering poor health for some time, Blankers-Koen did not attend the FBK Games last June, the most prestigious athletics meeting in her homeland. Leading the tributes to her, Lamine Diack, the IAAF president, said: “The whole athletics world mourns the parting of this great ambassador for our sport.”