How Rugby Star Ilona Maher Became a Body Positivity Queen at the Olympics
Ilona Maher is dominating her field.
And we aren’t just talking about the rugby pitch. Because while the 27-year-old has already proven to be a star player—we’ll let her performance at the 2024 Olympics and bronze medal speak for themselves—she’s also a star on social media.
But don’t take our word for it. Just ask Maher’s 1.8 million followers on TikTok. At this year’s Games in Paris, she’s won the gold in fans’ hearts by sharing everything from her “Olympic Fit Check” and takes on the cardboard beds to her new enthusiasm for handball and experiences at the Olympic Village—or the “Olympic Villa,” as she calls it, à la Love Island.
And along the way, Maher has met several other big names—posing for pics with Snoop Dogg, joking about “trying to relate” to Coco Gauff by telling the tennis star how she once played pickleball and officially turning Jason Kelce into a women’s rugby fan.
“Do you get anything from being our super fan? No,” she told the former Philadelphia Eagles player in one video. “There’s no money, no benefits. I don’t think I can even give you free stuff.”
In addition to championing her sport, Maher is a champion for celebrating all bodies.
“As the Olympics officially start today, I want you all to take a look at all the different body types on display,” she said in a July 26 video ahead of the Opening Ceremony. “All body types matter. All body types are worthy, from the smallest gymnast to the tallest volleyball player, from a rugby player to a shot-putter to a sprinter. All body types are beautiful, can do amazing things. So truly see yourself in these athletes and know that you can do it, too.”
And the athlete hopes she can continue to tackle stereotypes and empower others.
"I think there has always been a divide,” she told CBS Mornings in an interview that aired July 29. “People believing that, oh, when you play sports, if you're an athlete, you can't be feminine. I feel that I can be a beast and can play this very physical, aggressive sport while also keeping my femininity while I do it."
“People would always call me masculine, and I didn’t understand that,” she added. “But now, I’m like, ‘Oh, there’s a purpose here for it.’ I can stiff-arm, and I can fend, and I can get up and tackle as hard as I can. And that’s why I want other women to even just get in the gym and lift weights. Like, see what your body can do. Get to a point where you can do a pull-up. ‘Oh, man! I’m so powerful. I can do this.’ I just think it gave me a new perspective on my body.”
To learn about more athletes on Team USA, keep reading.
Noah Lyles is in the running to be declared the fastest man in the world.
The 2023 world champion in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 4x100 meter relay—the rare sprint treble—has designs on sweeping all three in Paris after a surprising bronze finish in the 100 in Tokyo.
Simone Biles is the most decorated gymnast in history, full stop. But the 2016 all-around Olympic gold medalist has unfinished business to attend to in Paris after a case of the twisties prompted her to pull out of most events in Tokyo in 2021.
Representing Team USA alongside Biles are Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera.
Longtime women's national soccer team goalie Alyssa Naeher has two World Cup titles, a slew of impressive stats and a big gap in her resume she'd love to fill with Paris gold after the squad's bronze showing in Tokyo.
Sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson was supposed to make her Olympics debut in Tokyo but was sidelined after a positive marijuana test. Now the reigning world champion in the 100 meters, she's a favorite to torch the competition in Paris in her signature event.
Swimmer Katie Ledecky has 10 Olympic medals, seven of them gold, and she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in May. Competing in her fourth Games, the Stanford grad has a chance to become the first female swimmer to win gold four straight times if she dominates once again in the 800 meters.
Olympic soccer requires the men's teams to be all 23-and-younger with three spots allowed for "overage" players—which is why veteran defender Walker Zimmerman thought his dream of playing on this stage ended when the U.S. men failed to qualify in 2016.
"Then as things materialized this year," the 31-year-old told the LA Times, "just getting the opportunity is amazing."
"If you had asked me at the Trials in 2021 if I regretted coming out, I would have said yes," runner Nikki Hiltz told NBC Sports of coming out as trans and nonbinary not long before they failed to qualify for Tokyo.
But Hiltz didn't give up—on their truth or their sport—winning U.S. indoor and outdoor titles in the 1500m in 2023, repeating the indoor feat in 2024 and running a field-leading 3:55.33 to take the women's 1500m at Trials on June 30.
"It's the last day of Pride Month," Hiltz told NBC Sports at the finish line, "and I wanted to run this one for my community."
Tennis champ Coco Gauff, winner of the 2023 U.S. Open, is ranked second in the world heading into Paris. The 20-year-old is making her Olympics debut after a positive COVID test dashed her plans for Tokyo.
Top-ranked in the U.S. and No. 2 in the world, B-boy Victor Montalvo is ready to turn the Olympics on its head as breaking makes its long-awaited debut at the Paris Games.
There's never only one superstar on the U.S. men's basketball team, but four-time NBA champion LeBron James is appearing in what will almost certainly be his last Olympics and he'll be one of Team USA's two designated flagbearers at the July 26 Opening Ceremony.
James told reporters he was "super-appreciative and-super humbled" by the honor.
There's nothing not badass about wheelchair rugby and Chuck Aoki has been a star of the U.S. Paralympic team since London in 2012. With a bronze and two silvers under his belt, winning gold in Paris would really complement his collection.
While Hunter Woodhall is not least known for being long-jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall's supportive other half, the University of Arkansas grad is also a sprinting machine. The two-time Paralympian—and first-ever double-amputee athlete to earn an NCAA Division I scholarship—heads to Paris having dominated in the men's T62 400m and T62 100m at Trials.
Two athletes, but a packaged set as far as beach volleyball is concerned. Louisiana State alums and best friends Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss hadn't even turned pro yet when, in April 2021, Nuss gifted Kloth an ankle bracelet for her birthday inscribed with "August 11, 2024."
If you're guessing that's the date of the women's finals at the Paris Olympics, you are correct.
Six-time Paralympian Oksana Masters was born in Ukraine in 1989 with radiation-related birth defects—including webbed fingers and tibial malformation—connected to the Chernobyl disaster. Growing up in Louisville, Ky., with adoptive mom Gay Masters, she underwent a number of surgeries, including respective leg amputations at 9 and 14—after which she took up rowing.
But sun, snow... It's all the same for the seven-time gold medalist, who has three Winter Paralympics as a para-cross-country skier and para-biathlete and three Summer Paralympics as a para-cyclist and para-rower under her belt heading into Paris, where she'll compete in cycling events.
After finishing just shy of the podium in Tokyo, surfer Caroline Marks is ready to ride her 2023 world title to Olympic victory in... Well, not Paris. All of the surfing will be taking place at Teahupo'o on Tahiti, nearly 10,000 miles away from the rest of the festivities.
Swimmer Jessica Long, whose Instagram bio reads "Born without legs + living my best life," is headed to her sixth Paralympics. The 29-time medalist, 16 of them gold, is pretty much just racing for bragging rights at this point.
Las Vegas Aces, um, ace and two-time WNBA MVP A'ja Wilson will be leading the U.S. women's basketball team in their quest for their eighth straight gold medal. (The men are looking for only their fifth straight, having been vanquished in 2004.)
Butterfly and freestylin' fool Caeleb Dressel won five gold medals in Tokyo, no big deal, to bring his career Olympic gold tally to seven. Paris will be the swimmer's third Games and first as a dad, having welcomed son August Wilder Dressel with wife Meghan Dressel in February.
After Jessica Parratto earned a silver medal in Tokyo for women's synchronized 10m platform with partner Delaney Schnell—Team USA's first-ever medal in that event—the 5-foot-2 athlete retired to, as she told NBC Sports, "finally be a normal person."
She did that for, like, a year until Schnell wooed her back into the pool. But to be clear, Parratto said of her return before they qualified for Paris, "I didn’t do it because she wanted me to. I really did it because I wanted to."
But she doesn't mind the camaraderie, either. When Schnell banged her feet at the Montreal Diving World Cup in May, Parratto's first international event back from retirement, "it was a really good bonding moment for us," she said, "and just being like, okay, we got this."
The U.S. men do gymnastics, too, and Fred Richard was the top scorer on both nights of the 2024 Olympic Trials. Obviously fans will flip if the 2023 NCAA all-around (and horizontal bars, and parallel bars) champion from University of Michigan helps the national team make an Olympic podium for the first time since 2008.
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