A female runner who identifies as “transgender non-binary” will compete in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
The athlete, Nikki Hiltz ran the second-fastest time ever of any American woman in the women’s 1500-meter race at the U.S. Olympic trials on Sunday. Hiltz, 29, goes by “they/them” pronouns (via NBC News):
Hiltz, who uses they/them pronouns, charged ahead of Elle St. Pierre and Emily Mackay in the final stretch of the race, finishing with a time of 3:55:33, a trials record. All of the top eight finishers set a new personal best time, according to OutSports. Paris will mark Hiltz’s Olympic debut.
In a post-race interview with NBC Sports, Hiltz said that she ran the race for the LGBTQ+ community.
“This is bigger than just me. It’s the last day of Pride Month...I wanted to run this one for my community,” she said. “All the LGBTQ folks, yeah, you guys brought me home that last hundred [meters]. I could just feel the love and support,” Hiltz said, adding that she felt honored to be going along with Elle St. Pierre and Emily Mackay.
On Instagram, Hiltz wrote that “a childhood dream of mine came true.”
“All I know is today I’m waking up just so grateful for my people, overwhelmed by all the love and support, and filled with joy that I get to race people I deeply love and respect around a track for a living,” she added.
According to Fox News, Hiltz raced collegiately at Oregon and Arkansas and was an All-American in 2018. Hiltz won a silver medal in the 2024 World Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, and a gold in the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.
World Athletics, the governing body that oversees track and field competitions, adopted a policy that bans men who think they are women from competing in women’s competitions. Women who believe that they are men are allowed to compete in men’s races.
In Hiltz’s case, she will be allowed to compete with women as it aligns with her biological sex (via NBC News):
World Athletics’ policy doesn’t specifically mention nonbinary athletes, but those who were assigned female at birth are generally allowed to compete in female categories if they haven’t received hormone therapy.
In 2022, another “nonbinary” athlete, Quinn, who played soccer, competed in the Tokyo Olympics. Quinn became the first “transgender nonbinary” athlete to win a medal at the Olympics.