"She’s a biological woman who ran in woman’s race. Stop with goofy clickbait headline"- Fans react to Paris Olympic-bound Nikki Hiltz's media coverage

American middle-distance runner Nikki Hiltz recently made headlines after making the USA team in the women’s 1500m event through an impressive performance at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials. In the finals, Hiltz ran a meet record and personal best performance of 3:55.33 to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Hiltz, who is a biological female, identifies "themselves" as transgender non-binary, uses ‘they/them’ as pronouns and competes in women’s events. However, after winning the trials, multiple news platforms began covering the 29-year-old as a transgender athlete qualifying for the Paris Olympics.

With news outlets adding "trans" before Nikki's name in headlines, many people mistakenly interpreted the athlete to be a biological male competing in women's events. It is worth noting that World Athletics, the global governing body, has banned transgender women from competing in women's events.

As a result, fans were quick to respond to the media outlets addressing Nikki Hiltz as trans in their headlines. One fan referred to the headline as "goofy clickbait," noting that Hiltz is a biological woman who competed in a women's race, stating:

“She’s a biological woman who ran in a woman’s race. Stop with the goofy clickbait headline 🤡”

Another fan called the headline ‘misleading’, adding:

“Nikki is a biological female competing against other biological females. What pronouns they use doesn’t matter. From high school & college to the IOC, most people agree that athletes should compete in their biological category. The headline is misleading on purpose.”

Another user described it as ‘wild journalism’, adding:

“Absolute rage-bate this. Literally a woman, born a woman, who purposely doesn’t take testosterone so to be able to compete legally. Wild journalism.”

Here are some other responses that the media coverage generated -

“Good for them. They are competing fairly in the correct category, ”a user wrote.

“She was born a woman and she is competing against women this is fair,” another user chimed in.

"This person was born a female. Lol this is very misleading reporting", another user wrote.

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A look into Nikki Hiltz’s top achievements

Besides winning the 2024 US trials, Nikki Hiltz won the silver medal at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships, clocking a time of 4:02.32 in Glasgow.

Nikki Hiltz poses for a photo during the medal ceremony for the Women's 1500 Metres at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Glasgow 2024. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)

"They" also clinched two National indoor titles in the 1500m event, recording times of 4:08.35 and 4:17.10, in the 2024 and 2023 editions.

Last year at the USA Championships, Hiltz bagged the national title with a time of 4:03.10 in the women’s 1500m event. In addition, they won the national mile road title in a time of 4:27.97. Besides this, they have won the 2019 Pan American Games, clocking 4:07.14.