Featured Image Credit: Ian MacNicol/Getty Images / Patrick Smith/Getty Images
Topics: Transgender, Olympics, Sport
Callum Jones
Topics: Transgender, Olympics, Sport
Transgender runner Nikki Hiltz is heading to the 2024 Paris Olympics after qualifying for the summer games on Sunday.
Hiltz, who uses they/them pronouns, secured the second fastest ever of an American in the women’s 1500-meter race at the US Olympic Trials.
They charged ahead of Elle St. Pierre and Emily Mackay in the final stretch of the race, finishing with a time of 3:55:33.
In a post-race interview with NBC Sports, Hiltz said the race had significance beyond qualifying.
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"This is bigger than just me. It’s the last day of Pride Month. ... I wanted to run this one for my community," they said.
"All the LGBT folks, yeah, you guys brought me home that last hundred (meters). I could just feel the love and support."
They added: "Elle St. Pierre has elevated women’s distance running. I saw the time, and I didn’t think that was possible.
"We all had to rise because of her. … Awesome team we’re sending to Paris."
Hiltz took to social media to admit a childhood dream of theirs was to go to the Olympics one day.
They wrote: "I’m not sure when this will fully sink in. 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."
The International Olympic Committee updated its rules for transgender athletes in 2021 to defer to each sport’s governing body.
World Athletics adopted a policy last year that banned all trans women athletes who went through male puberty from competing in female track and field categories.
Meanwhile, trans men are able to compete in male categories if they have satisfactory signed declarations of their gender identities.
Sebastian Coe, President of the International Association of Athletics Federations, said at the time: "Decisions are always difficult when they involve conflicting needs and rights between different groups, but we continue to take the view that we must maintain fairness for female athletes above all other considerations."
The body's policy does not specifically mention non-binary athletes, but those who were assigned female at birth are usually allowed to compete in female events if they haven’t received hormone therapy.