Seeing double Meet British athletics’ twin starlets of the track
The identical twin sisters tell Ben Bloom how sibling support helped them make the European Indoors
Atypical lunchtime scene at Mayville Primary School and the Nielsen twins would be at it again – round and round they would go, dropping their dizzy friends as they tirelessly navigated laps of the track until it was time to return to class.
Theirs is a joint story that began with the two of them together in Leytonstone, east London, and will culminate side by side with their senior international debuts in Belgrade, Serbia, next week. Identical 20-year-old twins donning British vests for the biggest moment of their professional lives at exactly the same time. Perhaps it was meant to be this way.
But at that stage, aged nine or 10, in the school playground there was no inkling of what was to come. It was just two young girls running for the sheer thrill of it.
“When it was announced that the Olympics were coming to London they changed our primary school to a sports specialist school,” says Laviai, the reigning European junior 400m champion.
“They knocked down an old building, created this massive playground with a running track and as soon as we saw it, we were like: ‘Oh my God, let’s go run on that’.
“We used to just do lap after lap after lap. Our friends would join in… and then they would drop out.
“Literally the whole lunchtime we’d just do laps to see how far we could go.”
The training venues have evolved somewhat since then. We meet at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre, one of a few places the twins have used regularly ever since they realised that running could be more than just a hobby.
Laviai is first to emerge – her darker hair making it easy to distinguish her from her highlighted sister Lina, who follows and explains that she has just been fine-tuning her university dissertation, which is due in just a few days’ time.
High-achieving students – they gained identical A*/A/B results at ALevel – their respective dissertation topics are a mark of just how much athletics has engulfed their lives since those care-free primary school days.
Lina, a third-year chemistry student at Queen Mary University of London, is investigating the changing nature of doping and detection techniques in sport, while Laviai, currently on a year out
from studying geography at King’s College London, is planning to look at the contribution cities have made to the Olympics.
Like most identical twins, theirs is a relationship of almost impenetrable intimacy. Giggling and joking around as they hug during the photoshoot, the pair’s unity has remained wholly unaffected by being pitted against each other on the track.
Originally longer distance runners in their early teens due to the wonderfully primitive fact that they loved to run for as long as they could, the Nielsens only moved to the 400m when a “random guy” – Frank Adams, who would become their coach – came up to them at a competition in 2013 and told them they were doing everything wrong.
“Lina asked if we could come and train with him and we’ve never looked back since,” says Laviai.
“We’d never even done sprint training before. We’d never run as fast as we could because we’d always run for as long as we could.”
While Lina had been the dominant twin on the track up to that point, things were about to change.
Within two months of joining Adams, Laviai had knocked more than two seconds off a personal best that was to be further reduced by an enormous four seconds the following season.
A relay medal at the World Junior Championships followed, before she won the European junior title in the same race that her sister finished last.
“It’s weird because you’re really happy for her, but at the same time you don’t want to put her on a pedestal,” says Lina of her twin’s success. “You just get a drive from it.
“It’s inspiring, but also comforting at the same time because you know if she’s done it, you can do it, too.
“Laviai has always been the quicker one – her legs turn quicker than mine do. So if I see her doing that, it makes me question why I’m not doing it.
“Why am I not running the same 200m time as she is?”
The answer lies behind a decision that will see the twins predominantly ply their trade in different disciplines for the first time this year. While still hoping to compete alongside Laviai in the 4x400m relay, Lina is changing to the 400m hurdles this summer.
“The hurdles has always been a dream for me,” she says. “It’s always been something I want to do.
“I have better strength and endurance so the hurdles suits me really well.”
As for her sister, Laviai says: “No way. I’m the world’s clumsiest person ever. I have no rhythm over the hurdles – no coordination.
“Lina’s a lot stronger, but I’m a lot quicker. So I’ll be sticking with the 400m and doing some 200m as well.”
Before they go their separate ways on the track, there is the not insignificant matter of making their senior debuts on Friday morning when they line up for the 400m heats at the European Indoor Championships.
Whether Laviai is successful or not in her bid for an individual medal – she is currently ranked fourth in Europe this year – the twins look nailed on to make the podium when they likely form half of Britain’s 4x400m relay quartet on Sunday evening.
“It’s going to be so special,” says Laviai. “It can be scary in the seniors, but to have someone there that you know – a family member and a best friend – it will make it so much easier.
“It pushes you more because not only are you doing it for yourself, but you don’t want to let your sister down.”
‘It pushes you more as not only are you doing it for yourself, you don’t want to let your sister down’