Illness does not stop the English Nielsen sisters’ race towards a medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Laviai and Lina Nielsen, 28 years old, are running strong: the first one entered the semifinals of the 400 meters, the second one passed the first round of the 400 meters hurdles.
The disease is multiple sclerosis, diagnosed in both at different times, at 18 for Lina, in 2021 for Laviai. On social media, the sisters recounted the long journey to Paris with a vlog ‘Road to Paris’ on YouTube to “inspire the new generations”.
“I feel like we’ve climbed mountains to get to where we are,” Lina Nielsen told the BBC after the World Indoor Athletics Championships. Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory and degenerative disease of the central nervous system characterized by the loss of myelin, the substance that covers the axons (the actual nerve fibers). It can affect multiple areas (hence the name multiple), involving structures such as the brain, spinal cord and optic nerve.
Women are affected twice as often as men. The prognosis is highly variable: most typically, in the early stages the disease presents itself in the form of relapses – acute appearance of new neurological symptoms – interspersed with phases of remission of varying duration. In the first years of the disease, even complete regression of symptoms is more likely, but over time the symptoms may regress incompletely or progressively worsen, leading to an accumulation of disability.
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