Lisa Norden: Background, career highlights, quotes

A three-time world champ who’s now lighting up the Ironman world, Lisa Nordén is still remembered for an absolutely classic Olympic encounter. Here’s everything you need to know about this versatile Swedish star…

Who is Lisa Nordén?

A horse-mad child for whom an equestrian career was beyond the means of her single-parent family, Sweden’s Lisa Nordén opted for triathlon instead.

“It came down to me and how much and how hard I was willing to work,” she says. “Not how much money we had.”

Swapping four legs for two wheels (and, of course, her own two feet) proved an inspired rerouting of Lisa’s sporting life.

Not only has she risen to become Sweden’s most decorated triathlete, but she’s also a multiple world champion, as well as coming a whisker away from Olympic gold. 

The closing stages of that Olympic race, in London in the summer of 2012, undoubtedly represent the most dramatic seconds in Lisa’s lengthy – and still lengthening – career.

Chasing down the Swiss athlete Nicola Spirig on the home straight, the pair were separated by just nine-thousandths of a second – but the Swede had to make do with silver.

Compensation was swift on the heels of this disappointment, though. That same season, Lisa took a stranglehold on the ITU series and was accordingly crowned world champion after the grand final in Auckland. 

After the white-hot temperatures of that miracle season, Lisa’s career lessened to more of a simmer as she found winning ways hard to come by. Until, that is, she upgraded to long-distance racing, enjoying success at Challenge, Ironman 70.3 and Ironman events across the globe.

And Lisa’s long-distance performances are still on the rise, a chapter still to be written in the late afternoon of her career, a sporting life that has also seen her win multiple national titles as a cyclist.

How old is Lisa Nordén?

Lisa Nordén was born on 24 November 1984, making her 39 years of age.

Lisa Nordén’s career highlights

August 2007: An unexpected early world title

After a solid junior career, Lisa pulls out the race of her life thus far when she takes the U23 crown at the ITU world championships in Hamburg, having never previously occupied a European race podium.

May 2008: European bronze in Lisbon

In the wake of a brace of World Cup podium placings as an elite woman (third in Mooloolaba in Australia, second in New Plymouth in New Zealand), Lisa travels to Lisbon for the European championships and leaves with the Portuguese capital with a bronze medal in her luggage.

She takes third ahead of Switzerland’s Nicola Spirig in a photo finish. It will not be the only time that the pair can barely be separated on the line.

May 2009: Dawn of a new world

Lisa makes an impressive debut appearance in the ITU world championships in their new series format, missing out on gold in Madrid by a single second to the New Zealander Andrea Hewitt. It’s the start of a tremendous series for the Swede.

August 2009: World championship overall silver

After taking second place in ITU races in both Hamburg and London, Lisa adds gold to her three silvers in the series with victory in Yokohama, bringing home the field five seconds ahead of Hewitt.

However, Lisa is later beaten to the overall title at the grand final on the Gold Coast when home favourite Emma Moffatt pips her to both the line and the world crown.

August 2010: A second world title

Lisa continues her fine form of the previous season with ITU gold in Hamburg and a silver in Kitzbühel, but the summer’s highlight is her second global title when she triumphs at the sprint world champs in Lausanne, gaining revenge over second-placed Moffatt.

July 2012: The season of Lisa’s life

After a comparatively run-of-the-mill 2011, 2012 proves to be something of a watershed for Lisa. An extraordinary second half of the season is kickstarted by another ITU silver in Kitzbühel, where Lisa trails home behind Nicola Spirig. The two, though, had another date with destiny…

August 2012: An Olympic classic

The closest-ever triathlon race in Olympic history unfolds in London’s Hyde Park when Lisa attacks Spirig on the home straight.

To the naked eye, they are inseparable at the tape and only the finest technology can detect there are just nine-thousandths of a second between the pair. The Swiss is awarded the gold medal.

August 2012: Straight back in the saddle

Any heartbreak Lisa might have felt following London is undetectable when she returns to racing three weeks later in her native Sweden.

Stockholm hosts its first ITU world championship race and the crowd favourite duly delivers, much to the delight of the citizens of the Swedish capital.

Another victory a month later in Yokohama again puts Lisa in pole position for the overall world title.

October 2012: Another world crown – and this is the big one

A fourth-place finish wouldn’t usually register among a world-leading athlete’s career highlights. But, having been hospitalised the night before with food poisoning, Lisa isn’t going to let a world title slip through her fingers again at the eleventh hour.

A brave and battling performance, finishing just outside the medals, is enough to put the Swede on top of the world.

September 2013: Debut in the desert

A glimpse at Lisa’s potential future is offered when she makes a promising first step up to long-distance racing, finishing eighth at the Ironman 70.3 world championships in Nevada. 

Back in April, she also won Challenge Fuerteventura.

June 2015: Back to winning ways in Istanbul

After a couple of disappointing seasons when she’s been unable to replicate that extraordinary 2012 form, Lisa makes a rare appearance atop a race podium when she wins a European Cup race in Istanbul.

The following season will see her register just a single top-10 finish in the ITU series, along with a disappointing 16th at the Rio Olympics.

May 2017: The 70.3 world beckons

Following that briefest of encounters with Ironman 70.3 racing four years earlier, Lisa makes more serious moves towards long-distance events, as shown by her creditable seventh-place finish at Ironman 70.3 Mallorca.

July 2018: A golden return home 

The glory days return for Lisa when she takes gold at Ironman 70.3 Sweden, following it up the next month with bronze at Ironman 70.3 Vichy.

July 2019: The medals keep flowing

Multiple podium finishes come Lisa’s way this month: bronze at Ironman 70.3 Sweden and silver at Challenge Prague. However, come September, she’s unable to finish the Ironman 70.3 world championship race.

September 2020: Post-pandemic double triumph

Lisa rattles off back-to-back victories at Ironman 70.3 Gdynia and Ratingen. At the latter, she comfortably holds off the experienced likes of Imogen Simmonds and Lucy Buckingham.

July 2021: Gold on her Ironman debut

In her maiden Ironman race, Lisa announces her arrival at the distance by taking a comfortable victory at Ironman Lake Placid after a superb bike leg sets her up for glory.

October 2021: Gold at Challenge Salou

A dominant and commanding performance from Lisa on the Catalan coast sees her break the tape almost eight minutes ahead of Dutchwoman Els Visser, with Lucy Buckingham trailing them in third.

May 2022: Top 10 in maiden Ironman world champs

In St George, Utah, Lisa delivers an impressive sixth place in her first Ironman world championship, following the well-seasoned likes of Daniela Ryf, Kat Matthews and Anne Haug home.

November 2022: Mexican wave of success

Having secured a top-five finish at Ironman Hawaii in October, when she dipped below nine hours for the first time, Lisa takes a further 10 minutes off her personal best at Ironman Cozumel, where she takes occupancy of the second step of the podium.

August 2023: Nordén on the charge

Lisa’s reputation as an Ironman competitor to be feared is further confirmed when she triumphs on home turf, taking the Ironman Sweden title in emphatic fashion (see main image).

Two months later she finishes ninth in Hawaii at the World Ironman Champs – where Lucy Charles-Barclay breaks the course record in her first Kona victory – but goes faster than last year with a time of 8:49:36.

In December, she adds silver at Ironman Western Australia to her vast – but still growing – haul of medals. Rather ominously for her rivals, a further 13 minutes is sliced off her personal best. 

Lisa Nordén in quotes

On her initial steps in triathlon: “My first couple of races were very much more like an adventure than competitive sport. I couldn’t swim freestyle and breaststroked my way through the 400m.”

On that extraordinary sprint finish at London 2012: “I’m normally not a good sprinter, but I got on Spirig’s shoulder and it felt pretty good. I saw the finish line and I thought ‘Maybe, maybe, maybe…’. But I didn’t quite get there.”

On following Olympic silver with world championship gold in the same season: “The second half of 2012 was a phase where my body continued to deliver above expectations. It was incredible to be part of it. It was like years of training suddenly hit home.”

What’s next for Lisa Nordén?

Lisa will turn 40 in 2024, but her career in long-distance racing is still in the ascendancy.

Having only appeared at three Ironman world championships to date, no-one should write off the prospect of Lisa Nordén winning another world champs medal, of whatever hue, before she hangs up her shoes.

It might be 17 years since her first world title, but born winners aim for glory until the last.

Top image credit: Nigel Roddis/Getty Images for Ironman