Transgender and nonbinary runner Nikki Hiltz not only qualified for the Paris Olympics by winning the women's 1500-meter race at the US Olympic Trials on Sunday, they did so in record time. Hiltz, who uses they/them pronouns, finished with a personal best time of 3:55:33, cementing a trial record. Indeed, it was "the second fastest time ever of any American in the women's 1500-meter race," per NBC News. The date only added to the significance. "It's the last day of Pride Month," 29-year-old Hiltz told NBC. "All the LGBT folks, yeah, you guys brought me home that last hundred [meters]. I could just feel the love and support."
Hiltz previously won the 1,500-meter race at the 2023 US Championships and earned a silver medal in the same event at the 2024 World Indoor Championships in Scotland, per Fox News. Each sport's governing body sets the rules regarding transgender athletes at the Olympics. World Athletics, which governs the international track and field competition, generally allows nonbinary competitors assigned female at birth to compete in women's events if they haven't received hormone therapy, per NBC. For Hiltz, making the US Olympic team is a childhood dream come true.
"I'm not sure when this will fully sink in," they wrote Monday on Threads. "All I know is today I'm waking up just so grateful for my people, overwhelmed by all the love and support." Elle St. Pierre, who previously held the trial record and was the top-finishing American in the women's 1500-meter race at the Tokyo Olympics, led for most of Sunday's race but ultimately finished third. Hiltz said she helped push the other runners. All eight top finishers set new personal best times, per OutSports. St. Pierre and Emily Mackay, the second-place finisher, also qualified for the Olympics on Sunday, ensuring what Hiltz said would be an "awesome [US] team." (More 2024 Paris Olympics stories.)
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