Nilsson Remains the One to Beat

On the way to her first practice at UCLA, distance runner Lena Nilsson asked her coach, Eric Peterson, to guess how long it took her to read 19 pages in one of her textbooks.

“I have no idea,” Peterson said.

“Five hours,” Nilsson answered.

That was four years ago. Nilsson’s ability to read English has improved considerably since then, but the Swede’s determination is just as fierce, Peterson said.

“That was the first time she had been studying in English,” he recalled. “But she’s the kind of person, if she doesn’t understand a word, she’ll look it up. She’s perfection to the end.”

Nilsson’s work ethic helped her become a good college student. Athletically, it has resulted in her setting several UCLA records, establishing herself as one of Sweden’s top Olympic hopefuls for the 2004 Games in Athens, and making a return appearance in the NCAA track and field championships starting today at Sacramento State.

Nilsson will attempt to defend her title in the 1,500 meters. The preliminaries are at 7 p.m. Thursday, with the final at 7:40 p.m. Saturday.

“I’m starting to feel the tension in the air,” Nilsson said, before taking the track Tuesday for her first practice session at Sacramento. “I’m not here to defend my title. I’m more here to win a title. I feel this is a new championship.”

Since her arrival in Westwood in the fall of 1999, Nilsson has pushed and prodded herself to conquer new challenges. Among them was running cross-country, which was not part of her training while growing up in Vallentuna, Sweden, a suburb of Stockholm.

Nilsson began running longer distances at the urging of Peterson, who thought she would benefit from competing in a wider range of events. The junior earned All-American honors in cross-country last fall by placing 17th in the NCAA championships at Indiana State.

“When she came to UCLA, I felt that she needed to broaden the types of things she did as an athlete,” said Peterson, coach of UCLA’s cross-country teams and its distance runners in track. “She’s so good that she can run in a lot of different events and still grow and develop.”

Nilsson still doesn’t like cross-country, but she doesn’t complain about the results. Last month, she became the first woman in Pacific 10 Conference history to repeat as champion of the 800 and 1,500. She holds the Bruin records in those events, running 2:02.26 in the 800 in a meet at Malmo, Sweden, last August and clocking 4:07.69 in the 1,500 against an elite field in the Prefontaine Classic on May 24 at Eugene, Ore.

“[Cross-country] gets you prepared for track season,” she said. “It gets you strong. That’s all that matters.”

Nilsson also won the 800 and 1,500 in the NCAA West regional two weeks ago at Stanford, but for the second year in a row it was decided that she would only compete in the 1,500 in the NCAA championships. Factoring into that decision is the unusual circumstance of UCLA athletes taking final exams this week while on the road.

“I felt like there were too many things going on to make [running both the 800 and 1,500] possible,” she said.

Nilsson’s main competition in the 1,500 includes Mississippi State sophomore Tiffany McWilliams and Northern Arizona freshman Johanna Nilsson, who grew up running against Lena Nilsson in Sweden. They are not related.

“It’s going to be a mini-Swedish championship,” Lena said. “Even though we’re not family, we’re going to find out who’s the best Nilsson.”