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 Linda Züblin competed at the St. Moritz track in a round of the Bobsleigh World Cup, 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 b ...

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 regardle ...

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 farms ...

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 2013Jörg 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 ...

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 Union ...

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

Emmie Charayron Nicola Spirig Helen Jenkins

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 * 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 l ...

Female Athlete of the Year

References

External links

*
Profile
at 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