In 2017, the triplet sisters from Estonia, Leila, Liina and Lily Luik will be the promoters of Wizz Air Skopje Marathon. The triplets are the first triplets in the history of the Olympics who have qualified and participated in the Olympic Games (summer or winter).
31 years ago: While their mother Lea was waiting in the taxi outside the hospital where she gave birth to the twins, to take them home, their father was bringing them to the vehicle – one, then the other, then the third one. The taxi driver commented: “Do you plan to empty the whole hospital?”
The sisters Leila, Lina and Lily, born prematurely (October 14th 1985), in the eighth month, not weighing more than 2 kg each, needed extra care especially in the first months.
Thirty years later, the three of them have met the entry standard for the marathon race of the Olympics in Rio. The last one to meet the standard was Leila Luik who did it at Hamburg marathon (2h: 42 min) because her sisters had already ran under the Olympic standard of 2:45. The three of them are also the only three girls from Estonia who had met the entry standard for the Olympic marathon in Rio.
Their best personal marathon achievements:
Leila: 2:37.11;
Lina: 2:39.42;
Lily: 2:40:30
Coincidence or not, the sequence of their best results corresponds to the sequence in which they were born.
At the Olympic marathon in Rio, Lily ran it for 2:48, Leila for 2:54, while Lina failed to finish it. However, the trip
lets were the most talked about issue in the Olympic marathon announcements.
Although they have taken up athletics and marathon running rather late (at the age of 24), they are a true inspiration for a small country like Estonia, which does not have any remarkable tradition of marathon running, especially not in the category of ladies. Their popularity is evidenced by the number of 10.000 participants taking part in the 7 km women’s race held in Tallinn earlier this year.
Let’s hope that their presence at Wizz Air Skopje Marathon will be motivating for ladies from Macedonia to start participating in races and recreationally train and jog, because these girls are a proof that it is never too late to start and progress towards achieving top success!
Except as athletes, they are professional hip-hop dancers and artists (Leila and Lily paint portraits, landscapes, flowers and swans – inspired by their surname which translated from Estonian means “swan”).