| Lina Nielsen | |
| Birth Date: | 13 March 1996 |
| Birth Place: | London, England |
| Hometown: | London, England |
| Height: | 1.73 m |
| Weight: | 60 kg |
| Sport: | Track and field |
| Event: | 400 metres hurdles |
| Club: | Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers |
Lina Nielsen (born 13 March 1996) is a British sprinter,[1] hurdler and yoga instructor.
In August 2022 she revealed she had been diagnosed with MS nine years earlier.
Nielsen grew up in Leytonstone, East London.[2] Her mother is Egyptian-Sudanese and her father is Danish.[3] In 2017, she graduated from Queen Mary University of London with a degree in chemistry.
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.[4] [5]
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.[6]
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[7] 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.[8]
| 2015 | European Junior Championships | Eskilstuna, Sweden | 8th | 400 m | 54.72 | |
| bgcolor=gold | 1st | 4 x 400 m relay | 3:34.36 | |||
| 2017 | European Indoor Championships | Belgrade, Serbia | — | |||
| European U23 Championships | Bydgoszcz, Poland | 4th | 4 x 400 m relay | 3:30.74 | ||
| 2021 | European Team Championships, Super League | Chorzów, Poland | bgcolor=gold | 1st | 400 m hurdles | 3:29.27 |
| bgcolor=silver | 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 | 24th (sf) [9] | 400 m hurdles | 1:31.22 | ||
| 3rd | 4 x 400 m relay | 3:24.72[10] |
Lina 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.[11]
In August 2022, Nielsen revealed she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis,[12] 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.[13]