Olympics 2008

I'm pretty sure that in the immediate aftermath of giving birth to our two sons, my wife wasn't thinking of nipping to the local park for one of her regular 5km jogs.

But then I guess that's why she runs a PR company and Paula Radcliffe runs marathons.

Now I don't want to belittle Radcliffe's achievement in winning the New York marathon just 10 months after giving birth to daughter Isla last year, but even she has some way to go to match Holland's Flying Housewife.

Fanny Blankers-Koen gave birth to her first child in 1941 and was written off by the media, but the Dutch sprinter set six new world records in the 80m hurdles, 100m, 100 yards, long jump, 4x110 yards relay and 4x200m during the the next four years.

Her second child was born just six weeks before the 1946 European Championships, but she astonishingly won the 80m hurdles and 4x100m relay titles.

Fanny continued to defy critics such as British athletics team manager, Jack Crump, who claimed that she was "too old to make the grade".

The 30-year-old mother of two re-wrote the record books at the 1948 London Games winning the 100m, 200m 80m hurdles and 4x100m titles to become the first Dutch athlete to win an Olympic title, the first woman to win four Olympic gold medals and the first to win four events at the same Games.

In 1999, she was named the female athlete of the century by the International Association of Athletics Federations.

Fanny, who also won five European titles and 58 Dutch championships, and set or tied 12 world records, died at the age of 85 in 2004.

So, did Fanny deserve the accolade, or was there another female athlete more deserving of the IAAF award?