Nikki Hiltz knew who they were. It was time to share that with the world.

“I felt confident enough in being like, ‘Yeah, I have this identity, and I think it’s time to share,’” Hiltz said in a February conversation with NBC Sports track and field analyst Kara Goucher.

On March 31, 2021, International Transgender Day of Visibility, Hiltz made an announcement on Instagram coming out as transgender and nonbinary.

“Hi I’m Nikki and I’m transgender,” Hiltz wrote. “That means I don’t identify with the gender I was assigned at birth. The word I use currently to describe my gender is non-binary. The best way I can explain my gender is as fluid. Sometimes I wake up feeling like a powerful queen and other days I wake up feeling as if I’m just a guy being a dude, and other times I identify outside of the gender binary entirely."

Within hours of coming out, Hiltz felt “happiness and relief.” But it didn’t take long for that happiness and relief to be met with disrespect and challenges to their identity.

“I was running into hurdles,” Hiltz said. “Things like people stumbling over my pronouns or purposely trying to invalidate my gender kept happening.”

Amid all this, Hiltz embarked on their first U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in the summer of 2021 in Eugene, Oregon.

“That was a really fast turnaround,” Hiltz said. “You just want to be focused on running the best race you possibly can, and not having those distractions.”

But Hiltz was fending off those distractions and felt it affected them at Trials. They failed to qualify for the final in the 800m and finished 13th in the 1500m final.

“I stood on the start line of the Olympic Trials 1500 final and said to myself, ‘maybe it's just easier for everyone if I don't make this Olympic Team,’” Hiltz later wrote on Instagram.

After slogging through Trials, regret seeped in.

“If you had asked me at the Trials in 2021 if I regretted coming out, I would have said yes,” Hiltz said.

That represented a low point for Hiltz. But they remained steadfast in their identity — and in their role empowering fellow members of the transgender and queer communities.

“Maybe someone is a trans person, or nonbinary, and wants to go by different pronouns, and that gave them the hope,” Hiltz said.

I think sports is such a beautiful place, where we’re setting the stage for what’s possible.

As Hiltz began to notice progress from commentators and the rest of the track and field community, it provided perspective on a difficult personal decision.

“Now, looking back, I’m so glad I [came out],” Hiltz said. “It’s been cool to see the world catching up and using my pronouns more and more frequently and seamlessly.

"Ever since then, I feel like I’ve turned a corner. This is who I am, and slowly the world has started to accept it more and be better."

In 2023, Hiltz reached the mountaintop of U.S. running. They won U.S. indoor and outdoor titles in the 1500m, completing a remarkable 180-degree turn from that 13th place finish at Trials.

They defended the indoor title in 2024, and took silver in the 1500m at the world indoor championships in Glasgow in March. Consequently, Hiltz entered the 2024 Trials as a favorite to earn a spot at the Paris Olympics.

Hiltz scorched the Hayward Field track, storming to a personal-best 3:55.33 in the women’s 1500m final to win yet another national title and clinch a spot at their first Olympic Games. The time also set a Trials record.

"This is bigger than just me," Hiltz told NBC Sports’ Lewis Johnson minutes after crossing the line first. "It's the last day of Pride Month, and I wanted to run this one for my community. All the LGBTQ folks, you guys brought me home that last 100 (meters). I could just feel the love and support.”

Hiltz is bound for Paris on the U.S. 1500m team, alongside Elle St. Pierre and Emily Mackay.

While blazing a trail for nonbinary athletes in track and field, Hiltz joins the Olympics on the heels of U.S. skateboarder Alana Smith and Canadian soccer star Quinn, who became the first openly nonbinary athletes to participate in the Olympics at the Tokyo Games.

Heading into their first Olympic Games, Hiltz recognizes the massive stage they are about to step on in Paris. But beyond this moment, they have a message for those that insist they “can’t understand” Hiltz and other members of the nonbinary community who use they/them pronouns. 

“I don’t care if you understand or not,” Hiltz said in that February conversation. "If someone says, ‘Hey, I’m Michael, but I want to go by Mike,’ you don’t go, ‘Why would you want to be called that?’ You say, ‘OK,’ and you have compassion for them. It’s the same thing. I was assigned female at birth, but I don’t want to be called she/her. I want to be called they/them.

It’s not about comprehension. It's about compassion.