Ida Nilsson

About

Ida Nilsson is a Swedish trail and mountain ultrarunner born February 8, 1981, in Kalmar, who reached world-class level in two entirely separate sports before becoming one of the defining women in ultra-trail racing. She won NCAA Division I championships in the 3,000m steeplechase (2004) and 5,000m indoor (2005) at Northern Arizona University, set the Swedish national record in the 3,000m steeplechase (9:39.24), and finished seventh at the 2006 European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg while competing at the 2005 World Athletics Championships. A series of injuries — including a hip stress fracture in 2009 — ended her track career, but after training ski mountaineering in Chamonix with Emelie Forsberg, she transitioned to trail running with immediate elite results: she won Transvulcania three consecutive years (2016, 2017, 2018), setting the women's course record of 8:04:16 in 2017; set the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim women's FKT in 7:29:16 in 2018; won Canyons by UTMB 100k in 2023; and claimed silver at the 2022 Trail World Championships 80km. In 2018 she co-founded Moonvalley, a natural sports nutrition company, with Emelie Forsberg and Mimmi Kotka. She now lives in Måndalen, Norway.

Notable Wins

• — Transvulcania 2016
• — 2017 (women's CR 8:04:16)
• — 2018; Grand Canyon R2R2R women's FKT 7:29:16 (2018); Canyons by UTMB 100k 2023; Trail World Championships 80k silver 2022

Race History