USA nonbinary runner Nikki Hiltz advances semifinals in track and field
Team USA middle-distance runner Nikki Hiltz secured a spot in the women’s 1500-meter semifinals after finishing third in her qualifying heat at the Paris Olympics.
Team USA middle-distance runner Nikki Hiltz secured a spot in the women’s 1500-meter semifinals after finishing third in their qualifying heat at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday.
After the race, Hiltz, who is nonbinary and transgender and uses their/them pronouns, shared a post on social media to celebrate their achievement, extend a message of encouragement to the trans and nonbinary community and seemingly weigh in on a heated gender dispute involving two female boxers.
“There’s a lot of ignorance and hate out there right now. For those who identify as nonbinary or trans and are doing cool things in the world (which is most likely all of you because all queer people are cool AF) remember you are magic and that it’s not the critic who counts. I love you. I need you. I see you. Keep going,” Hiltz wrote, in part, on Instagram.
Hiltz’s message comes as two fellow Olympians, Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan, have come under scrutiny and a barrage of online abuse after reports surfaced that the two women were disqualified from competing at last year’s Women’s World Boxing Championships. The International Boxing Association, the Russian-led sports organization that disqualified them, alleged that they had failed to pass unspecified gender tests that found they had male chromosomes.
Khelif and Lin were both cleared to compete in the women’s matches at the Paris Olympics, and the International Olympic Committee has fiercely defended them and their eligibility to compete. The IOC, which severed its relationship with the IBA last year, called the boxing association’s eligibility tests “flawed” and “not legitimate.”
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