Lina Nielsen

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Lina Nielsen
Personal information
Born (1996-03-13) 13 March 1996 (age 28)
London, England
Home townLondon, England
Height1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Weight60 kg (132 lb)
Sport
SportTrack and field
Event400 metres hurdles
ClubShaftesbury Barnet Harriers
Achievements and titles
Personal bests
Medal record
Women's athletics
Representing  Great Britain
Olympic Games
Bronze medal – third place 2024 Paris 4×400 m relay
World Indoor Championships
Bronze medal – third place 2024 Glasgow 4×400 m relay
European Junior Championships
Gold medal – first place 2015 Eskilstuna 4×400 m relay

Lina Nielsen (born 13 March 1996) is a British sprinter,[1] hurdler and yoga instructor.

Career

Nielsen won the 400 m hurdles at the 2021 European Athletics Team Championships with 55.59. Nielsen has a twin sister, Laviai Nielsen, who is also an international athlete over 400m.[2][3]

At the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Nielsen won a bronze medal as part of the 4x400 metres relay team which also included her sister Laviai Nielsen.[4]

After winning the 400 metres hurdles gold medal at the 2024 British Athletics Championships, Nielsen was subsequently named in the Great Britain team for the 2024 Summer Olympics[5] where she went out in the semi-finals after hitting a hurdle and falling to the track. Recovering from that setback, Nielsen ran for Great Britain in the heat of the women's 4 x 400 metre relay, qualifying for the final in second place. Although, like her three fellow heat runners, she did not run the final, the third place finish for the Great Britain team in that final confirmed that Nielsen had won her first Olympic medal, a bronze.[6]

Personal life

Nielsen grew up in Leytonstone, East London.[7] Her mother is Egyptian-Sudanese and her father is Danish.[8] In 2017, she graduated from Queen Mary University of London with a degree in chemistry.

Lina is also a yoga teacher, having undertaken her teaching training in Rishikesh in the summer of 2019. She is now one of the yoga instructors on the fitness app Fiit.[9]

Multiple sclerosis

In August 2022, Nielsen revealed she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis,[10] at the age of 17. She chose to keep her diagnosis private for nine years, but following a relapse two days prior to her World Athletics Championships heats in Oregon she decided to go public with her story.[11]

Achievements

International competitions

Representing  Great Britain &  England
Year Competition Venue Position Event Notes
2015 European Junior Championships Eskilstuna, Sweden 8th 400 m 54.72
1st 4 x 400 m relay 3:34.36
2017 European Indoor Championships Belgrade, Serbia 400 m sh DNS
European U23 Championships Bydgoszcz, Poland 4th 4 x 400 m relay 3:30.74
2021 European Team Championships, Super League Chorzów, Poland 1st 400 m hurdles 3:29.27
2nd 4 x 400 m relay 3:27.16
2022 World Championships Eugene, United States 33rd (h) 400 m hurdles 57.42
Commonwealth Games Birmingham, United Kingdom 11th (h) 400 m hurdles 58.95
European Championships Munich, Germany 21st (sf) 400 m hurdles 57.19
2024 World Indoor Championships Glasgow, United Kingdom 3rd 4 x 400 m relay 3:26.36
European Championships Rome, Italy 7th 400 m hurdles 55.65
Olympic Games Paris, France 3rd 4 x 400 m relay 3:24.72[12]
24th (sf) [13] 400 m hurdles 1:31.22

References

  1. ^ "Lina Nielsen". IAAF. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  2. ^ "Meet the GB twins going for gold in Belgrade". BBC Sport. 2 March 2017. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
  3. ^ Debbie Black (12 August 2015). "What It's Actually Like To Train With Professional Athletes". Elle. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  4. ^ "REEKIE SILVER & RELAY BRONZE AS GB&NI END WITH FOUR WORLD MEDALS IN GLASGOW". British Athletics. Retrieved 18 July 2024.
  5. ^ "Kerr & Johnson-Thompson head GB Olympics athletics squad". BBC Sport. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
  6. ^ "Olympics rocked by awful scene as hush falls over crowd during athletics: 'Hard to watch'". Yahoo Sport. Retrieved 9 August 2024.
  7. ^ Ben Bloom (25 February 2017). "Laviai and Lina Nielsen driven by twin dream of a medal on British debuts". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  8. ^ "Meet Team GB: 5 of our brightest stars set to compete this summer". The Standard. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  9. ^ "THERE'S ELITE. AND THEN THERE'S LINA NIELSEN". fiit.tv. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  10. ^ "Lina Nielsen: British 400m hurdler reveals multiple sclerosis diagnosis before Commonwealths debut". BBC Sport. 3 August 2022. Retrieved 28 August 2022.
  11. ^ "Lina Nielsen British Athlete Reveals Multiple Sclerosis Diagnosis". Sky Sports News. 3 August 2022. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
  12. ^ Heat result
  13. ^ fell, completed the lap