Foekje Dillema: Silence for a lifetime about why you were not allowed to participate

On June 18, 1950, Foekje Dillema improved the National Record on the 200 meters of Fanny Blankers-Koen. On the Olympic day in Amsterdam she runs the distance in 24.1 seconds. A black and white photo of that day shows the two runners, Foekje has beaten an arm for four-time Olympic champion Fanny, she laughs wide.

Foekje Dillema (1926-2007) came from the Frisian village of Burum. She was one of eight children, her father was in the work of work as an unemployed person. In 1948, she was a member of Gymnastiekvereniging Quickness and strength In Kollum, she was a spectator at a running competition. « I can do that too, » she thought – and participated outside of competition. She didn’t have shoes with her, she walked on socks. And she won.

‘The miracle of Foekje’ lasted short. July 1950, a month after her victory over Fanny Blankers-Koen, Foekje Dillema and her teammates are on the way to a tournament in France. In Amsterdam she is taken out of the train by board members of the Dutch Athletics Union. Foekje had received a letter from the Athletics Union, which she had to undergo a sex test – just like a few other runners, to prevent discrimination also women with children. Foekje refused, she didn’t show up. She was suspended.

Intersex

In the performance written by Kees Roorda Foek From the Frisian theater company Tryater that will premiere this week, it is a dramatic moment. It has already been explained that Foekje Dillema Interseekse was, her body had both male and female characteristics. « Foekje knew? No, not first. Foekje was just Foekje. »

After being taken out of the train, her team travels and she goes back. The narrator on stage: “You see it for you: her thin training jacket against the wooden handrail of the third class, she always had it – as if she could handle the world with it. Who picked her up at Leeuwarden’s station? gjinien. She walked home, thirty -five kilometers. With a bag heavy from the shoes and the dreams. Lay hair heit and memorial (father and mother) already in bed? And how do you tell? What do you say then? ”

The largely stated in Frisian Foek – There is a translation – is a special performance for several reasons. The most striking: Foekje is not a character in Foek. We see her through the eyes of other people: who look at her, help her or condemn her, his friends, family, teammates or athletes from later decades who also had to deal with suspension. That has a metaphorical reason: Foekje is excluded, she was not allowed to belong. As another athlete says on behalf of her: « I know who I am. But what does others think of what I am? »

« You want people to feel: Suppose you were someone who is excluded – what does that do to you? »

And there is another reason why Foekje is not a character in Foek. He is that Foekje Dillema has been silent for her life. After she had traveled back by train, she has entrenched herself in her parents’ house for three years. Then she became a gymnastics teacher, she gave gym class to the children of the village. But never, no one wanted to talk about her exclusion, let alone about the cause or reason.

About that silence, says director Jos van Kan, he first thought: what a strong woman. « But then you go dig and find out: doctors gave at that time – and that is happening now – the advice to say nothing. So whether that silence was so beautiful: I don’t know. »

Sports hall

It is a week before the premiere, the rehearsals are in full swing. There is a rug with the floor of a sports hall on the stage: all performances will soon be staged in sports halls. There are musical instruments: a marimba, a vibraphone, a big drum. Foek is a musical theater, there is musician, singing and dancing. And run: the actors have had running training, they run on the stage and a few times even around the stands with the audience, as if they were walking around a job.

In Foek is talked about after Foekje. An intersex swimmer who was allowed to go to the 1972 Olympic Games as a reserve but was never selected, says: « They found out during an investigation. But I was not told anything, the truth remained hidden from me. » And then there is Caster Semenya, the South African runner with the male Y chromosome (and relatively much testosterone) who is the book about her life The Race to Be Myself (2023) released. Thanks in part to Caster Semenya, the International Association of Athletics Federations has adjusted the rules.

Jos van Kan: “We have struggled for a long time with the question: Foekje goes differently than in her real life Foek talk? We decided not to do it: she didn’t talk. But it is a difficult dilemma. You can remain silent, because why should everything always be said? But you can also find that too easy – and you want to pronounce. With the show that people who are silent, we want to think: I can do something with this. And that those who do not remain silent and take on the fight also recognizes themselves. You want to make people feel: Suppose you were someone who is excluded – what does that do to you? ”

Is Foekjes story a sad story? « It is sad and hopeful at the same time. Her hope for an international sports career is broken, after which she locks herself at home. And then she looks through the curtains after three years and sees a new assignment for herself: teaching children. I think that is very beautiful about her life story: that she makes a big life a little life – and that is what is a big life. – The Olympic flame passed to children. empowerment That she did not have a social sense, because there was no room for it in her time. « 

And, he also thinks: « You don’t want to bring people to the theater to say them: life is heavy and miserable. Life is heavy yes, but can someone print it out of it – I find that more interesting to show. And it is also an entertaining show, you can sometimes chuckle, it’s just nice to look at according to me. »

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