Another feat to cap off a fabulous year for Lisa

by klcovansky on 7 December, 2012

We have written about Lisa Nordén in an earlier post, but we would like to mention her again today as she was recently awarded the Svenska Dagbladets guldmedalj, commonly referred to as Bragdguldet or the Feat Gold. The gold medal is awarded to an individual athlete or a team who has accomplished “the greatest Swedish sporting feat of the year”. The roster of former winners includes among others the Swedish National Football team, Ingemar Stenmark and Anja Pärson.

This is the medal Jakob & Jakob are after in 2025.

Bragdguldet is one of the most prestigious awards an athlete can win in Sweden. The only other award that is as coveted is Jerringpriset, an annual award that goes to the athlete or athletic team that has impressed the most during the recent year, as voted by the Swedish people at the annual Sports gala in Stockholm each January.

Since we wrote our post about Lisa in Swedish the last time around, here comes a little recap in English for all of our foreign readers.

“While we are discussing the theme of astronomy, I would like to continue on the subject. During these last days, some of our brightest shining stars have winked out (Lance Armstrong) while others have been born and now shine stronger and brighter with each passing day. A star from the latter category is Lisa Nordén, a 28-year old triathlete from Kristianstad in Sweden. This blog is not only about our adventures and our training efforts to reach our goals, but we also wish to present both individuals, organisations and events that inspire us. Lisa is definitely one of our great sources of inspiration.

Even if she won her first World Championship gold in 2010 (during the triathlon sprint in Lausanne) history will probably state that her big international breakthrough came during the summer Olympics in 2012. She won the Olympic silver in London, only 9 thousandth of a second after the winner Nicola Spirig and after a completely phenomenal duel to the finish. After the swimming, she was tailing the fastest swimmer by around a minute, and after a tactically intelligent bike race where she guarded her position a bit further down in the peloton, she flew through T2 climbing to a top position during the start of the run. Many triathletes through history have been stricken by hubris during the run, paying for their sin during the final sprint towards the finish line. Lisa had done her homework, though, and once again guarded her position right up until the finish where she kicked in another gear, flew away from Densham from Australia and fought all the way across the finish line against Spirig.

Early, early this morning [20 Oct 2012] Lisa was lying at the other end of an intravenous line on a hospital in Auckland. Last night, she had been foodpoisoned and had been forced to seek medical attention due to acute and severe dehydration. Later during the same day, the final race of the World Championship in Olympic distance triathlon was about to be settled, with Lisa as one of the favourites to win the Word Championship gold. She had to finish among the top eight and finally managed a fourth place, tailing the winner by 14 seconds. After a bout of gastroenteritis. Congratulations, Lisa!

It is feats like these that inspire us. Oh, and her motto (according to her website) is “Pain is weakness leaving the body”. Our kind of girl.”