In celebration of the 2024 Summer Olympics and Paralympics in Paris, GLAMOUR has launched Change The Record, a series dedicated to the women of Team GB, who are flipping the narrative on what it means to be an elite female athlete, from competing on their periods, balancing training with pregnancy and motherhood, navigating body image pressures, and yes, chasing world records.
Here, we chat with Lina and Laviai Nielsen, identical twin sisters who will be competing together in the women’s 4x400m relay, about the importance of sisterhood, going public with their multiple sclerosis diagnoses, and the secret to feeling fierce on the world’s stage.
Like most identical twins, Lina and Laviai Nielsen have each other’s backs. Unlike most identical twins, however, they’re spending their summer competing in the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Lina and Laviai, who specialise in the 400m hurdles and 400m, respectively, have already had to navigate the extreme highs and lows of elite competition. While Laviai got her Olympic campaign off to a sparkling start, winning a bronze medal in the Mixed 4x400m relay, last night, she narrowly missed out on a place in the individual 400m final. “I had full faith and belief I could make it; I felt SO ready for the challenge. I can honestly say I left it all out there last night,” she wrote on Instagram.
The night before, her sister Lina also had to process her disappointment after falling on the final hurdle during the 400m semi-final. “I ran the hardest I’ve ever run, with full belief I could make that final,” she wrote on Instagram. “It was the fastest race of my life, but unfortunately, I couldn’t get over that last hurdle.”
Lina received many supportive messages, but by far the most powerful was the tribute made by her sister Laviai, who wrote, “Forever proud. That wasn’t the hardest hurdle you’ve had to overcome in your career. Just the beginning of what’s always been rightfully yours.”
She is perhaps referring to the time when Lina, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at the age of 17, suffered a flare-up ahead of the World Athletics Championship in Oregon in 2022, which left her unable to perform at her best. Two weeks later, Laviai confirmed that she also had the condition, noting that she and Lina wanted to be a “beacon of hope” for others experiencing the chronic illness.
The Olympics are far from over for Lina and Laviai, who will be competing together in the women’s 4x400m relay on Saturday. I caught up with them a week before they headed to Paris to find out how they prepared for the competition, the importance of sisterhood in elite sport, and why having fun is always one of their main goals.
I know Lina and Laviai get asked it all the time, but I have to start by asking what it’s actually like to train and compete alongside your identical twin. “It just makes it feel more familiar,” begins Lina. “Going to the Olympics and other competitions can be really lonely – it can feel like it’s you versus everyone else. So having your twin sister there, who is basically a carbon copy of you, it makes it feel like a training day.”