15 Facts About Foekje Dillema

Foekje Dillema competed in sprinting where she was a rival of Fanny Blankers-Koen.

Foekje Dillema was born on 18 September 1926 in Burum, Friesland in the Netherlands.

In 1949, Foekje Dillema did not compete in the Dutch Championships due to an injury of her thigh.

Foekje Dillema was named "athlete of the match" in 1949 after winning the 100 metres and 200 metres race during a tournament in London.

Foekje Dillema was an important rival for another Dutch athlete Fanny Blankers-Koen, who won four gold medals during the 1948 Summer Olympics.

In 1950, Foekje Dillema was banned from competition for life by the IAAF.

Foekje Dillema was the first subject of a mandatory gender verification.

On 13 July 1950, Foekje Dillema was stopped on her way to an international meeting in France by the Dutch athletics authorities and expelled for life from competition.

Foekje Dillema lived a quiet life in her home town afterwards and always refused to speak on the subject.

Foekje Dillema died on 5 December 2007 in Kollum, Netherlands.

Foekje Dillema, having the typical female phenotype, was designated female at birth, raised as a girl and lived her life as a woman.

The forensic report speculated that Foekje Dillema developed from a zygote with an XXY genotype that promptly divided into a half XX, half XY embryo through nondisjunction.

Dohle concludes that Foekje Dillema was an intersex individual who had ovotesticular DSD.

Foekje Dillema had an operation on her glands in 1952.

In 2014, Ids Willemsma made a sculpture commemorating Foekje Dillema, currently installed in Leeuwarden.