Ida Nilsson


Ida Nilsson is a Swedish long-distance runner who also competes in ski mountaineering. In 2003 - 2006 she won a total of ten gold medals in Swedish championships in track & field and cross country running, plus two NCAA gold medals. After many years away from training Nilsson won the Swedish championship in ski mountaineering in 2016 and a couple of months later won the prestigious Transvulcania ultramarathon.

Childhood and youth

Nilsson hails from Kalmar in the flat southern Sweden. She grew up in a sports family where both her father Carl-Gustaf ”Calle” and mother Katarina competed at an elite level. Two brothers, Marcus and David, and a sister, Johanna, have belonged to the Swedish national team in athletics. At the 2002 Swedish cross country championships the family walked home with four gold medals, one silver and one bronze.
In 2001 - 2005 Nilsson studied at the Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, USA. She and her sister, Johanna Nilsson, ran for the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks collegiate team and had much success. Nilsson won the 2004 NCAA collegiate outdoor championships in 3000 m steeplechase and 2005 indoor championships in 5000 m. The two sisters were both ranked in the top three of a 2014 poll of greatest women's athletes in the Big Sky Conference. Nilsson won four cross country titles in that regional conference. Both were inducted into the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks hall of fame.

Track & field and cross country

Top years

During the first years of the 21st century Nilsson was the Swedish dominant in 5000 metres and 3000 m steeplechase, then a relatively new sport for women. In 2003, she was awarded the prestigious Stora grabbars och tjejers märke for her sports achievements. She finished seventh in the 3000m steeplechase at the 2006 European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg, where she set the Swedish national record at 9:39.24, a personal best. She also participated in the 2005 World Championships in Athletics in Helsinki. In the summer of 2006 Nilsson ran 3000 m in 9:01.01, the fastest time by a Swedish athlete in more than 10 years. Nilsson's personal best for 5000 m is 15:33.18.

Injuries

After leaving college in Arizona Nilsson had a series of injuries, including a stress fracture in her hip joint in 2009. The injury didn’t fully heal until the summer of 2013, and Nilsson gave up her track & field career. After this she basically didn't run at all for five years.

Personal bests

The following list is based on information from Nilsson's club Högby IF.
EventYearResult
400 m20001:01:81
800 m20032:12:87
1 500 m20064:18:54
3 000 m20069:01:01
5 000 m200415:33:18
Half marathon201601:18:22
3 000 m steeplechase20069:39:24

Nilsson has never run an official 10 000 m on a track; her best similar performance is 35:03 in a 2016 road race.

Mountain running and ski mountaineering

After many years of serious injuries Nilsson was finally able to run again in 2013. Nilsson: "Now even my body feels better than 10-15 years ago. Now I feel like young again."
In 2015 Nilsson won the Swedish mountain marathon Fjällmaraton. Later the same year, in her ultramarathon debut, she placed second in the 90 kilometer Ultravasan in Sweden. In early 2016 she became ski mountaineering Swedish champion at Keb Classic and won the Transvulcania mountain ultramarathon in the Canary Islands.
Nilsson, who during her track & field career seldom ran as far as, now competed in a number of longer races. In 2016 and again in 2017 she became Swedish road running champion in the masters athletics class for women 35 years. In the summer of 2016 Nilsson won the Marathon du Mont Blanc in Chamonix, France, proving that the unexpected Transvulcania win was not a fluke and planting Nilsson firmly in the world elite.
During the winter 2015 - 2016 Nilsson lived in Chamonix, France, and trained ski mountaineering with Emelie Forsberg. According to Nilsson it was Forsberg who inspired her to test more ultratrail. In running events Nilsson competes for Högby IF in Sweden, Måndalen IL in Norway and Salomon Running internationally. In ski mountaineering her club affiliation is Fjällframfart in Swedish events.
Nilsson has trained as a cook, a wilderness and adventure guide and as masseur.
For a living she has run a small company registered in 2015 as a sole proprietorship called Running soul - Ida Nilsson, that according to the Facebook site with the same name offered "massage, sports massage, yoga classes, workshops and training camps for runners".
As of 2018 Nilsson lives in Måndalen in the Rauma municipality in the Norwegian county Møre og Romsdal, and makes a living from skyrunning and ski mountaineering.
In 2018 Nilsson together with fellow athletes Emelie Forsberg and Mimmi Kotka started Moonvalley, an on-line shop dedicated to organic energy bars and sportsdrinks.

Results

Cross country and sky running

The following list includes only results after Nilsson's comeback after her five year injury period. A fair number of the races, in particular in her native country Sweden, are asphalt races or otherwise not strictly cross country or mountain running.
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019

Ski mountaineering

Fastest Known Time (FKT)