Foekje Dillema
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Foekje Dillema, born on September 18, 1926 in Burum, the Netherlands.
Dillema became world famous when she received the title "athlete of the match" in 1949 after having a fabulous sprint on the 200 meter during a tournament in London. She was an important competitor for another famous Dutch athlete Fanny Blankers-Koen, who won four golden medals during the 1948 Summer Olympics and became "Athlete of The Century" in 1999.
In 1950 the Frisian athlete Dillema was expelled for life for any athletic event by the Dutch National Athletics Federations. They claimed she was a man instead of a woman after performing a dubious "sex test". Her national record of 24.1 seconds on the 200 meters was cancelled. The reason was that Dillema was assumed to have too many male hormones in her body. She looked indeed a little like a man. This highly controversial decision is still being discussed in the Netherlands. After she was thrown out of a competition in France in 1950 she returned to Friesland. She did not leave her house for at least one year and still lives a quiet life in her home town.
Currently it is thought (although by no means proven) that the main reason for her being expelled was the threat she may been to Blankers-Koen, then the Golden Girl of Dutch athletics. Dillema showed some potential to exceed her.
