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Lina Nielsen

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Lina Nielsen
Nielsen in 2022
Personal information
Born (1996-03-13) 13 March 1996 (age 30)
London, England
Home townLondon, England
Height1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Weight60 kg (132 lb)
Sport
SportTrack and field
Event
400 metres hurdles
ClubShaftesbury Barnet Harriers
Achievements and titles
Personal bests
Medal record
Women's athletics
Representing  Great Britain
Olympic Games
Bronze medal – third place2024 Paris4 × 400 m relay
World Relays
Bronze medal – third place2026 Gaborone4 × 400 m mixed relay
World Indoor Championships
Bronze medal – third place2024 Glasgow4 × 400 m relay
European Championships
Silver medal – second place2026 Birmingham4 × 400 m relay
European Indoor Championships
Silver medal – second place2025 Apeldoorn4 × 400 m relay
Bronze medal – third place2025 Apeldoorn4 × 400 m mixed relay
European Junior Championships
Gold medal – first place2015 Eskilstuna4 × 400 m relay
Representing  England
Commonwealth Games
Silver medal – second place2026 Glasgow4 × 400 m mixed relay

Lina Nielsen (born 13 March 1996) is a British national record-holding sprinter and hurdler.[1]

In August 2022, she revealed she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis nine years earlier.[2]

Early life

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Nielsen grew up in Leytonstone, East London with her twin sister Laviai.[3] Her mother is Egyptian-Sudanese and her father is Danish.[4] In 2017, she graduated from Queen Mary University of London with a degree in chemistry.[citation needed]

Athletics career

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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 400 m.[5][6]

At the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Nielsen won a bronze medal as part of the 4 × 400 metres relay team, which also included her sister Laviai Nielsen.[7]

After becoming the British 400 metres hurdles champion at the 2024 British Athletics Championships, Nielsen was subsequently named in the Great Britain team for the 2024 Summer Olympics[8] 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 × 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.[9][10][11]

On 15 February 2025, she broke the British women's indoor 300 m record in a time of 36.53 seconds in Birmingham.[12] At the 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, she was part of the British 4 × 400 metres relay team which won a silver medal.[13][14] Nielsen retained her 400 metres hurdles title by winning the 2025 UK Athletics Championships.[15]

Athletics achievements

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International competitions

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Representing  Great Britain &  England
YearCompetitionVenuePositionEventTime
2015 European Junior Championships Eskilstuna, Sweden 8th 400 m 54.72
1st 4 × 400 m relay 3:34.36
2017 European Indoor Championships Belgrade, Serbia — 400 m sh DNS
European U23 Championships Bydgoszcz, Poland 4th 4 × 400 m relay 3:30.74
2021 European Team Championships, Super League Chorzów, Poland 1st 400 m hurdles 3:29.27
2nd 4 × 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 × 400 m relay 3:26.36
European Championships Rome, Italy 7th 400 m hurdles 55.65
Olympic Games Paris, France 24th (sf) [16] 400 m hurdles 1:31.22
3rd 4 × 400 m relay 3:24.72[17]
2025 European Indoor Championships Apeldoorn, Netherlands 2nd 4 × 400 m relay 3:24.89
3rd Mixed 4 × 400 m relay 3:16.49
World Championships Tokyo, Japan 29th (h) 400 m hurdles 55.82
2026 Commonwealth Games Glasgow, United Kingdom 4th 400 m hurdles 54.69
2nd Mixed 4 × 400 m relay 3:11.58
European Championships Birmingham, United Kingdom 6th 400 m hurdles 54.35
2nd 4 × 400 m relay 3:21.68

National championships and competitions

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YearCompetitionVenuePositionEventTime
2014 England Championships, U20 events Bedford — 400 m 58.58
2015 England Indoor Championships, U20 events Sheffield 2nd 400 m 54.48
England Championships, U20 events Bedford 3rd 400 m 53.95
2016 England Championships, U23 events Bedford 1st 400 m 52.97
British Championships Birmingham — 400 m 54.28
2017 British Indoor Championships Sheffield 3rd 400 m 52.89
England Championships, U23 events Bedford 2nd 400 m hurdles 58.87
British Championships Birmingham — 400 m 53.72
2018 England Championships, U23 events Bedford 1st 400 m hurdles 57.93
British Championships Birmingham 5th 400 m hurdles 57.98
2019 British Indoor Championships Birmingham — 400 m 54.57
British Championships Birmingham 7th 400 m hurdles 59.28
2020 British Championships Manchester 2nd 400 m hurdles 56.99
2021 British Championships Manchester 6th 400 m hurdles 56.68
2022 British Indoor Championships Birmingham — 400 m 53.09
2023 British Championships Manchester 2nd 400 m hurdles 55.62
2024 British Indoor Championships Birmingham 2nd 400 m 51.95
British Championships Manchester 1st 400 m hurdles 54.81
2025 British Indoor Championships Birmingham 2nd 400 m 51.77
British Championships Birmingham 1st 400 m hurdles 55.39

Circuit performances

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Grand Slam Track results[18]
SlamRace groupEventPl.TimePrize money
2025 Philadelphia SlamLong hurdles 400 m hurdles6th57.14US$30,000
400 m1st52.60

Personal life

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Nielsen is 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.[19]

In August 2022, Nielsen revealed she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis,[2] 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.[20]

References

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  1. ↑ "Lina Nielsen". IAAF. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  2. 1 2 "Lina Nielsen: British 400m hurdler reveals multiple sclerosis diagnosis before Commonwealths debut". BBC Sport. 3 August 2022. Retrieved 28 August 2022.
  3. ↑ 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.
  4. ↑ "Meet Team GB: 5 of our brightest stars set to compete this summer". The Standard. 28 July 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  5. ↑ "Meet the GB twins going for gold in Belgrade". BBC Sport. 2 March 2017. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
  6. ↑ Debbie Black (12 August 2015). "What It's Actually Like To Train With Professional Athletes". Elle. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  7. ↑ "REEKIE SILVER & RELAY BRONZE AS GB&NI END WITH FOUR WORLD MEDALS IN GLASGOW". British Athletics. Retrieved 18 July 2024.
  8. ↑ "Kerr & Johnson-Thompson head GB Olympics athletics squad". BBC Sport. 5 July 2024. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
  9. ↑ "Olympics rocked by awful scene as hush falls over crowd during athletics: 'Hard to watch'". Yahoo Sport. 7 August 2024. Retrieved 9 August 2024.
  10. ↑ "Women's 4 x 400m Relay - Round 1 - Heat 1/2 results" (PDF). Olympics. 9 August 2024. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 August 2024. Retrieved 11 August 2024.
  11. ↑ "Women's 4 x 400m Relay - Final results" (PDF). Olympics. 10 August 2024. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 August 2024. Retrieved 11 August 2024.
  12. ↑ "Gourley & Nielsen break British records at Keely Klassic". BBC Sport. 15 February 2025. Retrieved 18 February 2025.
  13. ↑ "GB win three silvers on final day of European Indoors". BBC Sport. 9 March 2025. Retrieved 11 March 2025.
  14. ↑ "SUPER SILVER MEDALS FOR MILLS, COURTNEY-BRYANT & BRITAIN'S WOMEN'S 4X400M TEAM AS CURTAIN". British Athletics. Retrieved 11 March 2025.
  15. ↑ "Lina Nielsen on another British Title Novuna British Athletics Championships 2025 NLTV Athletics". YouTube. 3 August 2025. Retrieved 5 August 2025.
  16. ↑ fell, completed the lap
  17. ↑ Heat result
  18. ↑ "Grand Slam Track Results". Grand Slam Track. Retrieved 5 April 2025.
  19. ↑ "THERE'S ELITE. AND THEN THERE'S LINA NIELSEN". fiit.tv. 3 September 2021. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  20. ↑ "Lina Nielsen British Athlete Reveals Multiple Sclerosis Diagnosis". Sky Sports News. 3 August 2022. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
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