Nicola Spirig Hug (born 7 February 1982) is a Swiss lawyer and former professional triathlete. She is the 2012 Olympic and six times European champion in women's triathlon.
Career
Nicola Spirig is a five times Olympian. She was Olympic champion in 2012 and runner up in 2016. She was World Championship runner up in 2010, Junior World Champion in 2001, Junior European Champion in 1999, and Elite European Champion in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2018. She was the second oldest competitor in the field when she won the 2018 European Championships in Glasgow.
Spirig was born in
Winkel.
On 4 August 2012, Spirig won Gold in the
Olympic Women's Triathlon, winning a close race in a photo finish with Sweden's
Lisa Nordén
Lisa Nordén (born 24 November 1984, Kristianstad, Skåne, Sweden) is a professional Swedish triathlete, 2012 Olympic silver medalist, and 2008 and 2016 Olympian. She is also the winner of the 2012 Triathlon World Series.
Nordén's other accom ...
.
In the 13 years from 1998 to 2010, Spirig took part in 72 ITU competitions and achieved 39 top ten positions. In 2010, she won the European Championships and the World Championship Series triathlon in Madrid, and the silver medal at the World Championship Series triathlon in London. In the overall World Championship Series ranking she place second.
Spirig has also competed as a long-distance runner, finishing second at the Swiss Cross-Country Championships in 2014 and competing at the 2014
Zurich Marathon. She subsequently competed in the marathon at the
2014 European Athletics Championships in
Zurich, where she finished 24th in a time of 2:37.12. More recently she finished second in the 10,000 metres at the Swiss National Athletics Championships in 2021. In 2015, she and
heptathlete
A heptathlon is a track and field combined events contest made up of seven events. The name derives from the Greek επτά (hepta, meaning "seven") and ἄθλος (áthlos, or ἄθλον, áthlon, meaning "competition"). A competitor in a hept ...
Linda Züblin
Linda Züblin (born 21 March 1986) is a female heptathlete
A heptathlon is a track and field combined events contest made up of seven events. The name derives from the Greek επτά (hepta, meaning "seven") and ἄθλος (áthlos, or ἄθλ ...
competed at the
St. Moritz track in a round of the
Bobsleigh World Cup
The Bobsleigh World Cup is an annual bobsleigh competitions. It has taken place since the 1984 Winter Olympics. Below is a lists of season champions. Each table shows the country and driver only.
Combined men's
Debuted: 1985.
Medal table
Two- ...
, racing at the invitation of Swiss pilot
Beat Hefti
Beat Hefti (born 3 February 1978) is a Swiss bobsledder who has competed since the late 1990s. Competing in four Winter Olympics, he has won a total of four Olympic medals. A gold medal in Sochi ( two-man, 2014), two bronze medals in Torino ( ...
alongside him and brakeman
Alex Baumann
Alexander Baumann, (born April 21, 1964) is a Canadian sports administrator and former competitive swimmer who won two gold medals and set two world records at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. In 2007, he was regarded by the national ...
in the four man event, with the quartet placing 27th.
In 2021, she competed in the
women's
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...
event at the
2020 Summer Olympics
The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July.
Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...
in Tokyo, Japan. She also competed in the
mixed relay event.
Personal life
Nicola Spirig lives in
Bachenbülach
Bachenbülach is a municipality in the district of Bülach in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland.
History
Bachenbülach is first mentioned in 1149 as ''Bahchenboulacho''. But it was certainly inhabited much earlier. The ruins of a Roman far ...
and holds a degree in law (lic.iur.). Both her elder sister and her elder brother were high-performance athletes before they started their academic careers. Their parents are teachers of physical education. Spirig is married to former Swiss triathlete
Reto Hug. They have a son, born 2013
[Jörg Greb]
''Der «schnelle» Sohn der Triathlon-Olympiasiegerin.''
In: Tages-Anzeiger
''Tages-Anzeiger'' (), also abbreviated ''Tagi'' or ''TA'', is a Swiss German-language national daily newspaper published in Zurich, Switzerland.
History and profile
The paper was first published under the name ''Tages-Anzeiger für Stadt und K ...
vom 24. März 2013 and a daughter, born 2017. When 2012 Olympic champion Nicola Spirig had her first child, she was not sure whether she would ever return to triathlon. But just 12 weeks after her third child was born in April 2019, the 37-year-old was back competing in the World Triathlon Series Grand Final held in Lausanne, Switzerland between 30 August 2019 to 1 September 2019.
ITU competitions
The following lists are based upon the official
ITU
The International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Unio ...
rankings and the athlete's Profile Page.
Unless indicated otherwise, the following events are triathlons and belong to the Elite category.
Olympics
World Championships
World Cups
European Championships
European Games
European Cups
Junior results
Awards
* 2000 Best Swiss Junior Sportswoman award
* 2001 Swiss Newcomer of the Year
* 2012
Swiss Sports Personality of the Year
The Swiss Athlete of the Year, Sports Personality of the Year was originally chosen annually from 1950 by the Switzerland, Swiss newspaper ''Sport''. As the newspaper was discontinued in the 1990s, the winners are now chosen by Swiss sports jour ...
* 2015
European Triathlon Union
World Triathlon, previously known as the International Triathlon Union (ITU), is the international governing body for the multi-sport disciplines of triathlon, duathlon, aquathlon and other nonstandard variations. World Triathlon hosts the top ...
Female Athlete of the Year
References
Further reading
*
Part 2The story of how Spirig trained for, and won, her 2012 London Olympic title.
External links
*
Profileat triathlon.org
at triathlon.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spirig, Nicola
1982 births
Living people
Olympic triathletes of Switzerland
Olympic gold medalists for Switzerland
Olympic medalists in triathlon
People from Bülach
Swiss female triathletes
Triathletes at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Triathletes at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Triathletes at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Triathletes at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Swiss female marathon runners
European Games gold medalists for Switzerland
European Games medalists in triathlon
Triathletes at the 2015 European Games
Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics
20th-century Swiss women
21st-century Swiss women
Olympic silver medalists for Switzerland
21st-century women lawyers
Triathletes at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Sportspeople from the canton of Zürich