U.S. rugby player and Olympic star Ilona Maher is setting the internet ablaze with her quick wit, sharp humor, and ability to shut down any hater who comes at her for being overweight, too many, not athletic enough, or anything else in between.
Maher, who’s a breakout athlete set to pursue the Olympic gold alongside the rest of Team USA in Paris, has also become a social media sensation who’s amassed over 1.4 million followers on Instagram and 1.6 million followers on TikTok, a figure that has only swelled in the few days since the Paris Games opened (she just surpassed 1 million followers 3 days ago and has already almost doubled that).
Part of the reason people love her so much is due to her body-positive messaging, which recently saw her shut down a troll for criticizing her for having a BMI of 30, though she corrected them in saying it was actually 29.3.
Her social media presence first started gaining traction during the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo as a way to get people to pay more attention to the sport (and as a side note, rugby is amazing and I’m glad more people are finally getting on board with that.)
“It is really important to have a profile, and a profile for our sport,” she told The Guardian. “It's about building the brand. We are female rugby players — we’re not getting million dollar contracts, we’re not getting paid the money we should be… I think it’s just about showing the personality that the women have. The game is very strong, not just for men, but for women too.”
Maher’s humor, talent on the field, social media presence, and ability to shut down haters have made her quite popular. Despite the fact she identifies as straight, she's become especially popular among the Sapphic community, with a number of lesbians already willing to lay their lives down for her.
Her effect has made a reach likely she didn’t even expect, and it’s brought so much attention her way even Snoop Dogg asked her for a photo.
It’s nice to have a breath of fresh air like Maher in the Olympics, and we’re stoked to see how she does as the Games progress. In the meantime, scroll through for some of our favorite reactions to her and the matches she’s already played in.
