nikki hiltz & emma gee are #couplegoals
also, the USWNT responds to bigotry from one of their own
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I have an op-ed up today at Teen Vogue about how sending the Utah WBB team to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho was the latest example of a larger pattern in which the NCAA fails to protect its marginalized student-athletes:
The association failing to prioritize the safety of their athletes is, unfortunately, par for the course where the NCAA is concerned. This latest incident is just the most recent in a pattern of long-standing disregard when it comes to protecting marginalized student-athletes. Despite a commitment to only scheduling championships in locations that can provide an environment that’s “safe, healthy and free of discrimination,” it’s clear to me that the NCAA does not always uphold that promise, as the Utah women’s basketball team can unfortunately attest.
track and field #couplegoals
If you’re not familiar with Nikki Hiltz and Emma Gee, let me introduce you. Hiltz is the first openly non-binary U.S. Track and Field national champion and is likely to make the U.S. Olympic team this year. They run the 1500m and are the World Indoor Silver Medalist, 5x national champion, and American record holder. Gee, a fellow track and field athlete, was the first student-athlete at Brigham Young University to come out as queer. She runs the steeplechase (she refers to herself as the “steeple queen”). The two have been dating since 2020 and met on Instagram via DM slide.
The two are some of my favorite athlete follows on social media, not just because I adore the individual content they each make, but because the glimpses they give us of their relationship are emblematic of the kind of partnership I enjoy being in. You can tell that the two are great friends—they root for each other as athletes but they also seem to enjoy each other in a very real way.
When I profiled Hiltz for the cover of Runner’s World magazine, Gee was with us for our entire conversation at Late for the Train coffee shop in Flagstaff, Arizona. Here is some of what I wrote in my first draft of that profile, some of which made it into the final piece and some of which was cut:
At Aptos High School, Hiltz established themselves as a breakout track athlete. “Each year I got better,” they explain. “My sophomore year, I made it to state and I got third, which as a sophomore was a big deal.” They had one of the top 10 times in the country that year, running a 4:43 in the 1600m.
“My high school coach, like, looked at my mom was like, ‘Nikki just got their college paid for,’” they said. But for Hiltz, all they cared about was being better than they were the year before. And they were. As a junior, they won state with a 4:42—one of the top three times in the country. “At that point it was really like, ‘Okay, I'm gonna do this in college, and I can do it wherever I want.’”
At this point in our conversation, Hiltz’s partner, Gee, interrupts us to provide context, which she does often. Gee is a Leo and also a runner—she received a scholarship to run at Brigham Young University, coming out as queer in an incredibly hostile social environment—and she wants to make sure that Hiltz is giving themselves the credit they deserve. It is clear that no one is a bigger cheerleader for Hiltz than Gee is.
“I was a scholarship runner as well to get into college, and my mile time was a five flat,” Gee says. “Nikki was running a 4:42. So it's like, the best of the best.”
Some athlete astrology for you: Hiltz is a Scorpio sun with a Gemini moon, a Scorpio Venus, and a Leo Mars.
Gee is a Leo sun with an Aquarius moon, a Libra Venus, and a Scorpio Mars.
There is some really great synastry between these two charts: Scorpio and Leo are both quite devoted to their partners—Scorpio wants someone to obsess over and Leo wants someone to obsess over them. They both have air moons, which explains their sense of humor and the way they roast each other. Their Venuses are very cute too—a Libra Venus wants to be loved and adored, and a Scorpio Venus can be singularly focused on their person. And then those Mars signs—they each have their Mars placement in the other’s sun sign.
Their personalities compliment each other well when it comes to dealing with the scrutiny and harassment that can come with being public-facing queer and trans people. From my original draft for Runner’s World:
Gee is a huge support for Hiltz in dealing with some of the hatred spewed at them, as she had had a much less positive experience of coming out in the conservative Mormon community at BYU. She knew what it was like to face discrimination and pushback for being queer. But unlike Hiltz, Gee did not struggle with being pushed into a forward-facing role.
“Something that's been very inspiring for me watching you is that it's not easy for you to be in conflict in this way with people,” Gee says, speaking directly to Hiltz across the table in the coffee shop. “Sometimes I get off on the fact that I get to stand up for myself to people and be like, ‘This is who I am.’ But not everyone is like that. I think people may not know that this doesn't necessarily come naturally [to you] and honestly, it kind of makes it more special.”
The two also organize the Pride 5K event together. After two years of virtual races, the first in-person Pride 5K was held in Flagstaff in October 2022, following the end of Hiltz’s outdoor season. Hiltz and Gee worked together to plan the event, despite neither having any experience with race planning on this scale. “It was just the dumbest thing,” Gee told me of their decision to take on the entire task themselves.
(I was reminded of the TikTok audio about homosexual audacity: “If there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that my homosexual audacity leads me to believe I possess any and all required skills to complete whatever project I’ve set my mind to deszpite having absolutely no previous experience in that particular craft. My motto has always been, ‘No, I’ve never done that. But I am gay, so how hard could it be?’”)
But mostly, I just love watching the two of them being best friends.
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And from the conclusion of the published version of my Runner’s World profile:
In the hotel room before the race, Hiltz and Gee get ready together. Gee is doing the community race, which takes place 45 minutes before the pros. They are both wearing single-color Lululemon sets, giving a sort of queer Barbie and Ken vibe: Gee in a hot pink tank top and matching shorts, Hiltz in a lavender version with a muscle tank. Talking into a camera for a vlog, Hiltz asks Gee about her goals for her race.
“You could be looking at a sub-five miler later today,” Hiltz says, as they pin on their race bib. “Is that you?” Gee asks. “No, you,” Hiltz says, as they both laugh. “Yeah, actually, I’m just trying to break five in my race, too.”
Hiltz fastens Gee’s bib to her shirt, they make a plan to meet up after their races, snap a selfie, then share a kiss. Gee leaves to run her race and Hiltz snacks on a banana. “I saw Johnny Gregorek eat a banana before a race one time and then he ran 3:49,” Hiltz says, referencing Mean Girls, into the camera, “so now I eat a banana before every race.”
After the race, Hiltz relaxes with Gee—who ran her mile in under five minutes—and debriefs. Hiltz shares the results on social media: “This one’s for all the trolls in my DMs who ask, ‘Why don’t you ever race the men?’”
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Ok, let’s talk about the USWNT’s drama
For those of you not overly online in the world of women’s sports, you might have missed all the drama that has unfolded in the last two days.
Korbin Albert, a new midfielder for the USWNT, posted anti-LGBTQ+ content on her social media accounts and the response from other players, as well as the woso community, was swift and immediate. As Meg Linehan and Steph Yang outline at The Athletic:
The videos that were publicly shared by Albert include a sermon given in a Christian worship space talking about how being gay and “feeling transgender” is wrong. The activity garnered widespread attention from women’s soccer fans, but it was not out of the ordinary on Albert’s profile.
Among the posts that Albert created on her TikTok profile was one from 2023’s Fourth of July weekend, showing her family taking turns stating that “their pronouns are U.S.A.,” with Korbin participating in the video. The post no longer appears on her profile as of Thursday afternoon.
Fans had previously surfaced one of Korbin’s likes on Instagram via a screencap, with a post from a meme account that read “God taking time off performing miracles to make sure Megan Rapinoe sprains her ankle in her final ever game.” The screencap shows Albert’s Instagram handle, though as of March 28, the original post appears to have been deleted entirely. It is unclear when it was posted on Instagram.
Rapinoe responded on Instagram with a statement that read, in part, “Wake TF up,” and addressing the note to “the people who want to hide behind ‘my beliefs’” and saying that “all you believe in is hate.” She explicitly stood with trans people, writing, “For all my trans homies enduring this horrific treatment day in and day out, I see you and hear you and I am WITH YOU.” And in what is undoubtedly a dig at the fact that Korbin wears jersey number 15 following Rapinoe’s retirement, Rapinoe signed her statement, “Yours Truly, #15.”
Other current and former USWNT reposted Rapinoe’s statement, including Becky Sauerbrunn, Ali Krieger, Sam Mewis, Kristie Mewis, Abby Dahlkemper, and Megan Kling. Korin is on the USWNT roster for the SheBelieves Cup, a series of two friendlies that kick off April 6 and is set to report to the team next week. The very public response from her teammates forced her to issue an apology that read, in part:
“I’m really disappointed in myself and am deeply sorry for the hurt that I have caused to my teammates, other players, fans, friends and anyone who was offended… I truly believe that everyone should feel safe and respected everywhere and on all playing fields. I know my actions have not lived up to that and for that I sincerely apologize. It’s an honor and a privilege to play this sport on the world stage and I promise to do better.”
But many people aren’t buying it. “Any apology from someone who has reposted videos of what is essentially conversion therapy of vulnerable queer people is going to be difficult to stomach,” Becky Taylor-Gill, a freelance sport producer and creator, wrote on X. “One that doesn't even mention LGBTQ+ people and the violence and discrimination they face is one that is unacceptable.”
However, the memes have been great.
And then THIS ALSO HAPPENED and, like
said, it’s just all a lot.(If you’re not caught up on the Ashlyn Harris/Sophia Bush/Ali Krieger drama, here you are.)
I love Nikki and Emma!
Thank you for including the Kamala Harris picture because I thought I was the only person laughing at it