How Olympics stars Lina & Laviai Nielsen overcame incurable illness that left them unable to walk and reached the Games
A HUSH fell over the crowd at Stade de France when British athlete Lina Nielsen hit the floor after clipping the final hurdle.
But in an Olympic moment that typifies the never-say-die spirit of Lina and her identical twin Laviai, she got up and walked in agony across the finishing line.
After the 400m hurdles semi-final on Tuesday, the 28-year-old almost broke down in tears as she revealed: “Ten years ago I had to learn how to walk again.”
Today, her sister Laviai will go for glory in the heat of the 4x400m women’s relay with a real chance of winning a medal in that event on Saturday evening.
What these siblings have in common, apart from their looks and a love of athletics, is that they both have multiple sclerosis which can flare up at any time
‘I couldn’t walk or brush my teeth’
It was only three years ago that Laviai discovered she had MS after suffering numbness on one side of her body just ahead of the Olympic games in Tokyo.
But she fought back from the incurable condition, which attacks the nervous system, and last weekend grabbed bronze in Paris in the 4x400m mixed relay.
Lina, who first suffered symptoms aged 13, was advised by doctors to give up running on health grounds.
She ignored them and qualified for this summer’s Olympics as one of this country’s fastest-ever 400m hurdlers.
Even before MS struck, the sisters had shown grit and determination to get to the start line.
They shared a bedroom on an estate in Leytonstone, East London — and their Danish father left when they were little, leaving their Sudanese-born mum to bring them up alone.
After missing out on the Olympic final this week due to falling at the last hurdle, Lina said: “I’m fighting every single day to try and get here. I really believed I could make the final which was why I was really fighting.
“I was panicking all week because being in the village and being around so many people and Covid and the food, I was scared that I might suffer a relapse.” In some ways, though, the twins were destined for the Olympics.
When it was announced London would host the 2012 Games, a running track was built at their primary school.
The pair enjoyed doing “lap after lap after lap” on the new surface at Mayville Primary School, which is only two miles from where the capital’s Olympic stadium went up.
Their talents were spotted by athletics coaches, and they were selected to carry kit for Team GB’s athletes when the biggest sporting event on Earth came to their neighbourhood.
I couldn’t move my right arm or right leg. I couldn’t walk.
Lina Nielsen
Age 16, Laviai was behind Jessica Ennis-Hill when she won the heptathlon on Super Saturday.
Lina said: “It really inspired both me and Laviai, because we saw what it was like to be part of such an important event.”
Three years earlier, Lina’s family were terrified by her first encounter with MS.
Waking up one morning, she could not move her arms — and neither her mother nor Laviai knew why. Both Laviai and the doctor thought Lina might have suffered a stroke.
It would be four years before the symptoms were properly understood.
understood.
Lina recalled: “When I was 17, that was the worst it has ever been. I had pretty much paralysis down the right-hand side of my body.
“I couldn’t move my right arm or right leg. I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t brush my teeth.”
Laviai helped Lina to perform those daily tasks as she slowly recovered.
Medics diagnosed MS following a series of tests, but it took two months before Lina told Laviai what was wrong with her.
She explained: “I felt like it was my fault that she may have to go through what I went through.
“I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemy, experiencing paralysis, but for my best friend to experience that, absolutely not. “The only way I can describe it is that it felt like guilt and it took a long time to tell her.”
Doctors advised Lina that strenuous exercise could bring on another relapse — and her mother asked her to drop the sprinting.
‘There are a lot of ups and downs’
At first, the youngster feared she might end up in a wheelchair, but came to realise that she could keep her dream alive.
Lina said: “You’d see these big words, ‘debilitating’, ‘chronic’, ‘incurable’, and things like that.
“So, for me, it was really just taking the time to understand my condition.
“The type I have is called relapsing remitting MS. It can change massively from one day to the next, so there are a lot of ups and downs.“
Despite the cruel illness striking so badly when she was 17, Lina still managed to achieve A-Level results of A*, A and B. Her twin got identical grades.
They both went on to complete degrees at the University of London, with Lina studying chemistry at Queen Mary college and Laviai doing geography at King’s.
Lina refused to give up on athletics and won the 4x400m relay, alongside her sister, at the 2015 European Junior Championships in Eskilstuna, Sweden. Laviai came first in the 400m and ran the fastest time for a female junior in the world that year.
In 2019, though, at the World Championships in Doha, Qatar, she finished last in her heat after suffering from exhaustion.
At the Olympics, I battled with feelings of complete exhaustion and anxiety.
Laviai Nielsen
She said: “It was horrible. I didn’t want to run any more.”
Battling back, Laviai qualified for the 2021 Games in Tokyo, but started to feel a numbness just before what should have been the biggest event of her life.
After finishing fifth in the 4x400m relay, she wrote on Instagram: “To stand on a start line and not want to be there is a difficult feeling to accept.
“At the Olympics, I battled with feelings of complete exhaustion and anxiety, coupled with trying to get myself in the right headspace and it left me depleted and, ultimately, burnt out.”
At this point, the world did not know that the sisters had MS.
A year later Lina revealed the truth about herself, writing on social media: “The only reason I share it is that I hope it holds the power to inspire many and to give an understanding into the idea that sometimes you might never know what some athletes truly face before the start line.”
The siblings are now the poster girls for British athletics. They are both signed to Storm model agency and have appeared in Vogue magazine.
The twins share a home in Islington, North London, practice running up the steep slopes to Alexandra Palace nearby and have the same coach.
Laviai revealed: “It’s like living with another you. We shop for make-up, and I’m like, ‘Lina, can I put this on your face so I know what it looks like on me?’”
But they know when to give each other some space, with single Laviai adding: “We know each other’s boundaries, when to watch a movie or when Lina needs to Facetime her boyfriend.”
Having missed out on the Olympics hurdle final, Lina has no more events in France.
All she can do is cheer on from the sidelines as her twin tries to upset the favourites the USA in the relay.
Laviai said: “It’s been an incredible journey to get here. I’ve never felt more ready for anything in my life.”
No one will understand better than her sister what she’s feeling as that starting gun fires.
As Lina said: “’Even though there’s a roadblock we still aim to get to the same place.
“We have each other, we have someone there to understand without having to say anything — that’s what’s kept us going.”