Generation TikTok: how sportswomen set the bar higher than the men
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Female athlete power on social media became ever more strident in 2024 – but the backlash also damaged careers and wellbeing. Lina Nielsen remembers the moment she had the idea. She was sitting around the Olympic Village in Paris with her sprinting teammates – and she was bored. “I said to Yemi Mary John: ‘I’m gonna make this TikTok’,” Nielsen recalls. She took herself to her bedroom, got out the flip phone each athlete had been given and typed into an Excel spreadsheet: “Where you at? Holla at me.”.
![[Laviai Nielsen and Lina Nielsen arrive by Eurostar into London St Pancras International train station after competing at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/33df01954438af52ad2231e4a748014a25b15fe6/0_0_4776_3240/master/4776.jpg?width=465&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Her five-second spoof of Kelly Rowland’s music-video texting fail took hardly longer than that to make. It also got 8m views. “It’s funny that the videos that do that best are the ones you don’t put any effort in,” says Nielsen with a laugh. She is still trying to make sense of the fact that her TikTok channel was the most popular of any British athlete at the Games, beating even the knit-tastic Tom Daley in second place. At the end of the Olympic fortnight her channels had been viewed by more than the Australian and German teams combined.
![[Screenshot from Lina Nielsen’s TikTok account showing her and Laviai Nielsen arriving at the Games.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/29b9d47fe7ba9aa1f5e02ee13f1feed2979184c9/0_476_1360_1698/master/1360.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Nielsen and her twin sister, Laviai – also competing in Paris – had joined the thousands of athletes sharing behind-the-scenes looks at village life, from chocolate muffins to cardboard beds. “It was a nice distraction because you’re so focused on competition and it can get a bit intense – social media just took your mind off things,” she says. Having fallen in the semi-finals of the 400m hurdles, Nielsen went on to help the British relay team to bronze in the 4x400m.
![[Screenshot from Lina Nielsen’s TikTok account showing her spoof of Kelly Rowland in the music video Dilemma]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3887945b11b7097d11c83a40956b29f2777d679f/0_623_1258_1571/master/1258.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
