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Who Is Ilona Maher? All About the Olympic Rugby Player Inspiring Young Women
The rugby player has turned into a role model for young female athletes all over the world as she promotes positive body image at the 2024 Paris Olympics through her large social media following.
An American rugby player is inspiring little girls everywhere not just by her phenomenal play at the 2024 Paris Olympics, but by her messages of positive body image on social media where she writes she promotes beast, beauty and brains as a hash tag.
Ilona Maher is now an American hero, after she helped to lead the U.S. women’s rugby team to their first-ever Olympic medal for men or women when they won the bronze medal in a win over Australia. The huge victory was much needed to help grow the sport in the U.S.
“I’m so happy that people are taking notice of it,” the two-time Olympian said on CNBC. “We’re trying to make this program better for all the women who came before us, who had to work full-time jobs to do this to make it better for all those coming in later.”
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When did Ilona Maher start playing rugby?
Although many children start in soccer or baseball at a young age, rugby isn’t as common a sport to pick up in the U.S., and Maher didn’t begin playing until she was 17, CNBC reported. Her father was also a rugby player at Saint Michael’s College, according to her Team USA profile. Coming off field hockey, basketball, and soccer backgrounds, she was recruited by Quinnipiac University to play on the rugby team and helped them win three national championships as a center. She was even named the nation’s top rugby player in 2017.
But she’s not just a beast at rugby. Maher also got a degree as a registered nurse from Quinnipiac, and went on to get a master’s degree in Business Administration and Management from the Keller School of Management at DeVry University, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Her Social Media Following
Even more important to Maher than rugby is embracing beauty. She’s frequently seen in her trademark bright red lipstick, which she said is important in helping to promote the sport to girls across the world.
“I think the stereotype around a rugby player is this idea that you need to drop your femininity and play a very masculine, brutal sport,” Maher said to WKRG. “Myself and my team and some others…are showing that femininity. We are doing our makeup before games, wearing makeup, wanting to feel pretty out there. But that doesn’t take away from how amazing we tackle and hit and run. You can be those things, and the stereotypes around women’s sports just should be thrown out the window now.”
Standing tall at 5-feet, 10-inches, Maher fully embraces her body type on social media. Pinned to the top of her Instagram is a photo of her showing off her bare shoulders and back, where she writes, “Dear girl with the big shoulders, you are not undesirable, you are not built like a linebacker, you are not manly…you are beautiful, you are imposing, you are powerful.”
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Maher hasn’t been shy to admit she weights 200 pounds. She once clapped-back at a TikTok commenter who mocked her for having a body mass index (BMI) of 30, which is considered overweight to obese.
“I think you were trying to roast me, but this actually is a fact,” she said on her TikTok. “I do have a BMI of 30. Well, 29.3 to be more exact. I’ve been considered overweight my whole life…I chatted with my dietitian because I go off of facts…and we talked about BMI and how it really isn’t helpful for athletes…BMI doesn’t really tell you what I can do.”
She later added, “I am considered overweight. But, alas, I’m going to the Olympics and you’re not.”
She’s also used the Olympics as a platform to poke fun at the stereotypes of the perfect figure, pointing out the unrealistic mannequins promoting Team USA products at the games.
“I think there’s this idea about what female athletes are and this need to be lean and fit,” she told WKRG. “But no, there’s athletes of all shapes and sizes competing at the Olympics.”
Maher’s social media following has grown to more than two million followers on Instagram and another two million on TikTok. She’s increased her fan base during this Olympics, not only for her social media posts documenting life in the Olympic Village, but also for recruiting a new rugby mascot: retired Philadelphia Eagles NFL star Jason Kelce.
“I am officially a fan of women’s rugby at the Olympics,” Kelce said on her TikTok post, before Maher added, “We got Jason Kelce!”
Maher said plans to keep up her brand and posts promoting positive body image.
“I want this to be what I can do for the rest of my life,” Maher said to CNBC. “I knew that platforms like TikTok and Instagram could be what does that for me, to create a brand, to put yourself out there…so it’s been really cool to build that up.”
