News

Who is Ilona Maher? Team USA women’s rugby star going viral at Olympics

Published

5 months ago

July 30, 2024

Who is Ilona Maher? Team USA women's rugby star going viral at Olympics

Her stiff arms and TikTok account have gone viral, and she or he has satisfied Jason Kelce to change into a rugby fan.

There won’t be one other athlete having a greater time than Ilona Maher to this point on the 2024 Paris Olympics. The Staff USA ladies’s rugby sevens star goes mainstream with the way in which she runs via opposing gamers on the sphere and entertains her followers on social media.

2024 PARIS OLYMPICS:Observe USA TODAY’s full protection right here

Although america misplaced to France to shut out pool play within the ladies’s Olympic rugby competitors on Monday morning, it nonetheless superior to the quarterfinals after beating Japan and Brazil in pool play on Sunday. The Individuals nonetheless have an opportunity to earn their first medal since rugby grew to become an Olympic sport once more forward of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Video games.

Right here’s what else it’s best to learn about Maher as she leads Staff USA in ladies’s rugby:

2024 Olympic medals: Who’s main the medal depend? Observe alongside as we observe the medals for each sport.

The place is Ilona Maher from?

Maher grew up in Burlington, Vermont, the place she performed discipline hockey, basketball and softball. She started enjoying rugby as a 17-year-old.

The place did Ilona Maher go to school?

Maher was a three-time All-America choice at Quinnipiac College in Connecticut, and graduated with a level in nursing. In 2016-17, she was awarded with the MA Sorensen Award, given to the nation’s prime collegiate ladies’s rugby participant.

That 12 months, Maher led Quinnipiac to its second straight NIRA nationwide championship within the fall and its second straight undefeated 7s season within the spring. The Bobcats had been 11-1 within the fall and avenged their solely lack of the season vs. Central Washington within the nationwide championship match. Quinnipiac was an ideal 15-0 document within the spring, profitable 7s championships in tournaments at Harvard, AIC and Brown.

That season, she completed the autumn season with 19 tries and a team-high 15 assists in 11 matches performed. She additionally led Quinnipiac in scoring as a sophomore in 2015, with 27 tries and 17 assists.

Ilona Maher top

Maher has revealed beforehand on social media posts that she is 5-foot-10 and 200 kilos. She is utilizing her platform on the Olympics to share messages emphasizing physique positivity.

MORE:Why US Olympians Ilona Maher, Chase Jackson need to develop definition of gorgeous

Ilona Maher age

Maher is 27 years outdated. She’s going to flip 28 years outdated on Aug. 12, the day after the closing ceremony on the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Ilona Maher stiff arms

Maher has drawn comparability to NFL operating backs Derrick Henry and Marshawn Lynch throughout the 2024 Paris Olympics. On Sunday, she had memorable stiff arms on lengthy tries towards each Japan and Brazil that rapidly went viral on the web. No matter occurs the remainder of these Olympics, these highlights might be among the many finest produced throughout these Video games.

How Ilona Maher grew to become TikTok star

Maher’s social media presence actually started to blossom when she first appeared with Staff USA ladies’s rugby on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She at present has greater than 3 million mixed followers on her TikTok and Instagram accounts, a determine that dwarfs extra outstanding American Olympians like Katie Ledecky and Noah Lyles. This notoriety has reportedly led to endorsement offers with Secret, L’Oréal and New Period. She’s additionally beginning a skincare line together with former school swimmer Ann Ragan Kearns.

“First, it was a strategy to get my message on the market, a strategy to get my crew on the market,” Maher advised The Guardian lately. “Particularly in Tokyo, it labored to [encourage] folks to tune in to our sport, get eyes on our sport. Then, personally, it’s change into a brand-building factor. I’m a feminine athlete in a sport that’s not very large, particularly in America. It’s not a money-making sport …. I need to make sports activities a profession and I don’t assume many ladies can assume that manner.”

Throughout these Olympics, Maher has already proven off her creativity by producing a TikTok video wherein she examined out the Olympic Village cardboard beds and a “Love Island”-inspired video joking about discovering a romantic associate whereas in Paris.

REQUIRED READING:Jason Kelce is now a ladies’s rugby sevens superfan due to Ilona Maher

What occurred when Ilona Maher met Jason Kelcee?

Maher’s Olympics star flip and her more and more ubiquitous social media exploits got here collectively Sunday when she had a well-documented interplay with former Philadelphia Eagles offensive lineman Jason Kelce.

Kelce attended Staff USA’s win over Brazil and got here to the locker room following the match. Maher, in talking with Kelce, used the chance to persuade him to hitch the crew’s unofficial bandwagon.

“Ladies’s water polo has Taste Flav as their superfan,” Maher advised Kelce in a video posted to her TikTok account. “You’re a lady dad. Do you get something from being our superfan? No. There is not any reward, no cash, no advantages, I do not assume I can get you free stuff.”

Kelce stroked his beard, going together with the enjoyable.

“You are an excellent salesman,” he responded. “I’m formally a fan of ladies’s rugby, Olympics.”

When does Ilona Maher, Staff USA ladies’s rugby sevens play subsequent?

Staff USA will face Nice Britain within the ladies’s rugby sevens quarterfinals Monday at 3:30 p.m. ET. If america wins, it might advance to the semifinals on Tuesday morning.

The way to watch Ilona Maher, Staff USA ladies’s rugby

All ladies’s rugby sevens matches on the Olympics might be out there by way of streaming on Peacock and NBCOlympics.com. The quarterfinals Monday will even be broadcast on E! The semifinals, in addition to the gold and bronze medal matches, scheduled for Tuesday might be broadcast on USA and E!