In 2021, track athlete Nikki Hiltz came out publicly as nonbinary. Three years—and countless medals and championships—later, they became the first out transgender Olympian in history to qualify for an individual final event, placing seventh in the women’s 1,500-meter in Paris.

Amid Hiltz’s preparations for LA28, Vogue chatted with the 10-time National Champion (who was just named to Time’s 100 Most Influential People in Sports, and won the women’s 800 meters ‘A’ final at the Los Angeles Grand Prix last week) about ramping up their training almost two years after undergoing top surgery, gender euphoria on and off the track, their recent engagement to Emma Gee—the first openly LGBTQ+ athlete in history to compete for Brigham Young University—and Kick, the forthcoming documentary film about them set to premiere at festivals later this year.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Vogue: Can you talk a little about your day-to-day life as you ramp back up your training, post-top-surgery?

Nikki Hiltz: I mean, my day-to-day life is pretty boring, honestly. My main focus is on working out, and then an even bigger focus is recovery. I kind of just have a routine that I’m pretty married to; it’s a very regimented schedule, but I’m not bored because I genuinely just love what I do. I love my job. I love working out and seeing how much I can push my body, and then I love recovery. I love sleeping. I take a nap every day. This morning, for example, I just went for a run in the park with Emma, and then after this I’ll take a nap, and then tonight I’ll lift. Over the past year, we’ve set up a home gym in our garage, which has been really nice.

Do you and Emma often run together? I know she’s also a pro in the track & field world, but her specialty is different than yours, right?

Emma competes in the steeplechase, which is 3,000 meters and kind of double the distance that I do, and then she’s also running over hurdles and water barriers and things. Two days of the week will be our individual big workout days, but the other five days…we’re pretty much just going for easy runs. This morning we went for an eight-mile run at a 7:30 or 7:40 pace, and we can do that together, so a good chunk of my training is just going on runs together, moving the legs, getting the mileage in and kind of flushing out the hard workouts.

Have you experienced any major or sustained dips in your energy, or any bad seasons where you’ve struggled to access the fun and the pleasure of what you do?

Injuries do that to me. I got injured a lot in college and I was really down, because I couldn’t do the thing that I loved. But at the same time, I would still go to practice every day. I was the kid on the team that was injured, but would still show up and cheer everyone on. It’s funny because everyone is so different in the way they love this same sport. For example, the World Athletics Indoor Championships just happened, and when you’re in the call room 15 minutes before the race, with all the people you’re going to race and everyone putting on their spikes, it’s so serious and intense. You have me trying to crack jokes with the officials or laugh with other people. And nobody is wrong! Nobody is loving the sport wrong. It’s just what works for you, and I found at a certain age that joy works for me.

Your viral Instagram post about your top surgery from September of 2024 continues to be shared and celebrated. How has your recovery from the surgery been? Has anything unexpected about the healing process come up for you, on the track or off?

I got my top surgery a month after the Olympics, and fall is our off-season, so I would say September through October, those are the only two months of the year where you’re not really training at a high level. So I knew I wanted to do it then—it was very intentional. I also knew I wanted to be as far away from the 2028 Summer Olympics as possible. But I think the recovery…you know, everyone’s body is different, but I was able to start returning to running four weeks after surgery. My surgeon said, “Wow, your body’s recovering really quickly,” and I think it’s because after the Olympics, I was obviously the fittest I’ve ever been. My body is used to getting beat up, beat up, beat up, and then recovering. But it was 10 to 12 weeks before I did anything like overhead lifting or pull-ups in the gym.

What I remember most about the recovery timeline was I really wanted to go to the White House in September of 2024 with all the other Olympians and Paralympians to celebrate after we all came home from the Games. Obviously, back then Joe Biden lived there…

It was a different house.

[Laughs.] It was a different house. That’s where I would be given an Olympic ring, and I just wanted to celebrate, especially with all the people I’d competed alongside. I remember asking my surgeon if I could get on a plane, and he was very firmly like: No, I wouldn’t recommend it. But it was just kind of a decision that I made, and it was pretty last-minute. I’m so glad I did. It was such a fun trip. No one knew I’d had the surgery because it was just personal. I wasn’t really sharing with anyone other than the people in my close circle. My first shirtless run after top surgery happened so much later than I thought it would; it was probably almost a year later.

How was that first shirtless run when it finally happened? Did you feel like you wanted to mark the moment in any way?

Oh, yeah. I was just with Emma and we were on a trail, kind of out of town…and Emma had taken her shirt off. I was like, I’m gonna take my shirt off. It was special, because it was this moment of just me and her, on a run. But then she got so mad at me! [Laughs.] She was like, “Did you put sunblock on? Okay, you can only have it off for like, five minutes. You’re going to get burned!”

For many trans celebrities, and especially trans athletes, engaging with the press and the media can mean inaccurate or invasive coverage, harassment, and abusive comments. Do you feel like your relationship to fame—and to media coverage of your life—is evolving alongside your career and your growing stature in the sports world?

I think part of my personality is that I don’t mind being the center of attention. You know, I don’t know if you’re into astrology at all, but there’s definitely some Leo in my chart.

Since coming out, I’ve developed a stronger sense of self and I just care less. I love me and the people that I love love me, and that’s what matters most. But I think that, in order to get there, it took a lot of setting boundaries with the media. In the past, when I would talk to anyone and everyone, sometimes when I would share my stories, the titles of the articles would become super click-bait-y and with not a lot of context. It’d be like, “Transgender Runner on Women’s Olympic Team.” And then the entire comment section is readers who think that I’m a trans man who’s on testosterone, and they’re like, That’s not fair! And I’m like, okay, well, I’m not taking testosterone. Or it goes the other way, and they think I’m a trans woman and they’re like: No biological men in women’s sports! It’s like, no one can even insult me correctly. They don’t even understand who I am or what’s happening.

Can you tell us a little bit about your partner Emma, and your love story?

Oh my gosh. I mean, there’s just so much to share. Emma’s an advocate who will always stand up for anyone; she’s always the person to say something, even—and especially—when it might get uncomfortable. She’s just not afraid to stand up for the little guy. I think her story of growing up in the LDS church and going to BYU and then coming out…I can’t think of anything more brave. I’ve learned so much from her and I just think we’re a really good match for each other. I love her so much, and it’s so, so fun to also get to chase our dreams together. At every US championship, I’m trying to be first, second, or third because that’s how you make the global teams to then compete at Worlds, and then the Olympics…and Emma’s going to these championships to try to place in the top 10 in her event, because that’s her goal for where she’s at in her career right now. And neither one of our goals is more or less important than the other. It’s such a worthwhile journey and it’s just so fun to chase a goal with someone that you love. Like, it’s just really cool to have a teammate.

How did you and Emma meet?

I slid into her DMs. [Laughs.] In the middle of COVID, we were…well, she’s a few years younger than me, but we were both in the NCAA together. She publicly came out in 2019 and I remember reading that article that she wrote and I was like, wow. This is kind of big news, to have someone at BYU come out. And so I think I started following her on Instagram. And then finally, over a year later, I was like: You know what? I’m just gonna shoot my shot. And we’ve been talking every single day since then. It’s a modern-day love story.