While Nikki Hiltz took a victory lap to celebrate a long-awaited trip to the Olympics, some fans reached out and handed bracelets to their favorite 1,500-meter runner — a runner who is doing this, in part, for them.
These days, Hiltz, who’s transgender and nonbinary, is shining in two lanes — on the track as one of the world’s top middle distances runners with a trip to Paris upcoming, and away from it as a role model for the queer community.
Hiltz, who’s always competed in the female category, uses the pronouns “they” and “them,” and highly suggests people get used to that because they aren’t going anywhere.
“I’m just looking forward to keep showing up as myself and keep taking up space,” the 29-year-old Hiltz said Sunday at the U.S. track trials after earning their first trip to the Olympics.
“I use they/them pronouns and people stumble all the time. But it’s like, ‘You can’t really ignore me anymore, because I’m a two-time, back-to-back champion. I’m here, get-it-right’ kind of vibe.”
Hiltz’s race plan last Sunday went exactly according to how they drew it up. They got out to a fast start, stayed close to the lead pack and took off at the end. Hiltz ran a personal best and meet-record time of 3 minutes, 55.33 seconds to hold off Emily Mackay and Elle St. Pierre by less than a second.
Flashback to the 2021 Olympic trials: It didn’t go as planned and they finished last in a final won by St. Pierre.
“I’ve just done so much work since then,” Hiltz said. “So much mental work and obviously physical work, too. It’s just a journey.”
Three months before the trials in ’21, life began to change for Hiltz. In a post on social media, they announced — “I’m Nikki and I’m transgender.”
The American record holder in the women’s mile remembers March 31, 2021, as a day when friends, family, fans and even track rivals could see Hiltz for who they really were.
As Hiltz gets ready to run in Paris next month, they know they are not just running for themselves.
They are now equal parts athlete and LGBTQ+ advocate in a world where transgender participation in sports has become one of society’s most divisive lightning rods.
“I definitely pour a lot of myself and a lot of my time and energy into the queer community and being an advocate,” Hiltz said last summer in an interview before world championships in Budapest, Hungary. “But I do that because I get so much in return.
I feel like every time I meet another nonbinary person in the queer community, they provide me with more representation.
They always say that I’m doing that for them, but I think representation is a two-way street and I definitely feel empowered.”
Hiltz competing in the female category doesn’t raise the same issues as faced by transgender women.
Two years ago, swimmer Lia Thomas became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship. It triggered new policies across sports.
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