Nina Eim: Background, career highlights, quotes

A European champion over the shortest distance, Germany’s Nina Eim has used her explosive running speed to take her to the sport’s top table.

Who is Nina Eim?

If you’re a female elite triathlete and you find yourself duelling for victory with Nina Eim in the last kilometre of the run, chances are you’re going to have to console yourself with second place.

For the 25-year-old German is generally considered to possess the fastest sprint-finish on the WTSC circuit.

Her running ability has certainly been her trump card as she’s moved upwards through the junior ranks into the higher quarters of the elite pack. She ranked eighth in the world at the start of 2024.

Having started in triathlon at the age of eight, Nina’s sporting ambitions have been singular and focused. Success in both the European championships and the European Cup as a junior has been followed through into adulthood.

Whether competing as a crucial part of Germany’s mixed relay squad or as an individual, Nina has frequently collected medals both across the world and across different formats – Olympic, sprint and super-sprint.

Indeed, it was at the latter distance in 2022 that she was crowned European champion.

Although Nina has yet to taste true glory in the WTSC series, several pairs of eyes are looking in her direction ahead of this summer’s Paris Olympics.

The reason for this was her impressive showing at the test event in the French capital last August, where Nina took sixth place. It’s clearly a course that suits her and it would be a foolish person to bet against her sneaking onto the podium.

If it came down to a sprint finish for one of those medals, you know who to back.

How old is Nina Eim?

Nina Eim was born on 1 August 1998, making her 25 years of age.

Nina Eim’s career highlights

August 2015: Bullseye in the Balkans

Recently turned 17, Nina registers the first major victory of her career when she wins a junior European Cup race in the Romanian city of Tulcea. As will become her trademark, a dominant run takes her clear of the pack.

June 2017: The bronze bunch

Nina and her team-mates take medals home with them from the European championships in Kitzbühel where the German junior mixed-relay squad finish third behind the quartets of Hungary and Russia.

May 2018: Maiden victory in the elite ranks

At the ATU sprint African Cup in the Tunisian resort of Yasmine Hammamet, Nina breaks the tape for her first win as an elite. Again, the run proved decisive, her four-second advantage securing her the top step of the podium.

May 2018: Double European Cup bronze

Third place in a European Cup sprint race in Olsztyn in Poland is replicated a fortnight later in the Dutch town of Weert, this time over Olympic distance.

September 2018: A first global medal

At the world university triathlon championships in Kalmar in Sweden, Nina holds off the challenge of France’s Mathilde Gautier to take bronze.

February 2019: Zimbabwean zinger

After her African Cup victory in Tunisia the previous May, Nina returns to Africa where, in the same competition, she brings the field home in a sprint-distance race in Troutbeck, Zimbabwe.

Two weeks later, she registers another win, this time in the indoor European Cup event in Liévin in north-east France.

May 2019: A first World Cup podium

In a World Cup race around the Sardinian port of Cagliari, Nina takes second place behind Britain’s Sophie Coldwell.

Among her scalps, however, are some noted athletes, including the Brit pair of future world champ Beth Potter and Jodie Stimpson, plus Australia’s Emma Jackson.

June 2019: European champs silver…

At the European championships in Weert, Nina is part of the German mixed relay team that misses out on gold by three seconds to the powerful French squad.

July 2019: …followed by world champs silver

History repeats itself in Berlin where, following the European champs the previous month, the German mixed relay quartet have to settle for silver after again succumbing to a narrow defeat to their French rivals.

May 2020: Another victorious visit to Africa

In the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius, Nina makes a winning return to African Cup action – a comfortable triumph again defined by her prowess on the run.

October 2021: Homage to Catalonia

Nina’s best result of the 2021 season is a win at the Europe Triathlon Cup race in Barcelona where she successfully holds off the challenge of compatriot Lena Meissner and Britain’s Olivia Mathias.

May 2022: Coronation as European super-sprint champion

In a whistle-stop super-sprint title race in the Polish city of Olsztyn, Nina takes her first major title, again forcing her fellow German Meissner to settle for silver.  

July 2022: First appearance in a WTSC top 10

Running on the home turf of Hamburg, Nina finishes ninth to confirm she’s truly arrived in the upper echelons of the sport. Only seasoned performers such as Flora Duffy, Beth Potter, Taylor Spivey and Laura Lindemann stand before her in the port city.

August 2022: Fourth place at the European championships

The reigning European champion over the super-sprint distance, Nina can’t repeat the trick over the Olympic format, although her fourth place is highly impressive, especially as it includes beating the highly ranked Cassandre Beaugrand.

But any disappointment at missing out on an individual medal is partially compensated for two days later when Nina earns a silver in the mixed relay, with Germany following in behind their familiar foes, the French.

August 2023: Plenty of Parisian promise

In Nina’s strongest season to date – which has included four top-12 finishes in the WTSC series – her best performance arguably comes in Paris where, at the test event for the Olympics, Nina comes home in sixth place.

The result seals her qualification for the Games, as well as seeing her leave the likes of Kate Waugh, Taylor Spivey, Katie Zaferes, Summer Rappaport and Sophie Coldwell trailing in her wake.

October 2023: Glory in the Eternal City

Despite the twin setbacks of injuries to both her hip and ankle, Nina signs off this deeply encouraging season with victory in the inaugural World Triathlon Cup Rome.

This – together with her consistent form throughout 2023, which also includes a silver at World Cup Triathlon Valencia in September – places her at eighth in the world rankings, an envious position to be in as she enters an Olympic year.

Nina Eim in quotes

On her first WTCS top 10 in Hamburg in July 2022: “I’m still a bit speechless that I had the second-fastest run in this field. I had so much fun racing on this course with such an amazing crowd.”
 
On winning the World Triathlon Cup Rome at the end of the 2023 season: “When I hit the front, I was confident of winning. My last 500m is my strength. It’s nice to go into the off-season with the win and be motivated for next year.”

What’s next for Nina Eim?

While current world champion Beth Potter and home hero Cassandre Beaugrand lead the favourites for Olympic gold, Nina’s strong showing at the test event back in August means she definitely can’t be ruled out of appearing on the podium in Paris.

2024 will also surely be the year that Nina properly challenges to be among the medals of the WTSC series.

Top image credit: World Triathlon