Who is Ilona Maher? Here’s what to know about the US women’s rugby sevens Olympian and TikTok star

SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — Rugby sevens star Ilona Maher has been an enormous hit on social media because the U.S. ladies’s group has progressed to the semifinals on the Paris Olympics.

She’s been busy making humorous TikTok and Instagram reels and likewise empowering posts about ladies and sports activities. She’s additionally producing some huge hits on opponents at Stade de France as an everyday starter for the U.S. ladies’s rugby sevens group.

Her video recruiting lately retired NFL middle Jason Kelce as a brilliant fan for the No. 4-ranked U.S. group after their first two video games on Monday magnified the eye.

The 27-year-old Maher isn’t new to this. Her hilarious takes on village life within the pandemic-era Tokyo Olympics three years in the past made her one of many breakout stars of these Video games.

How did Maher grow to be well-known on TikTok?

Spectators have been barred from Olympic venues in Tokyo, and there’s at all times strict guidelines anyway about who’s allowed into the athletes’ village. These weren’t obstacles for Maher. With followers locked out beneath harsh social-distancing guidelines, her social media followers obtained a humorous inside take a look at the Video games — beginning with the bedding.

Maher and her rugby sevens teammates examined out the cardboard beds in a TikTok video that gained thousands and thousands of views, displaying them performing CPR on the mattress, doing yoga and even throwing a mock tantrum.

What’s Maher doing through the Paris Olympics?

One other Olympic village, extra cardboard beds.

“Hey everybody, we’re again testing out the cardboard beds. My mattress goes to interrupt, sure, however I’m going to do it anyway,” Maher says by the use of introduction to the video that confirmed her and a few of her teammates wrestling on the beds, doing gymnastics strikes and Irish jigs, amongst different issues. Nothing to lose sleep over.

Her U.S. teammates, together with Nicole Heavirland, Naya Tapper and Sammy Sullivan, typically make it into Maher’s posts. Then there’s the individuals she runs throughout on the Olympics — like Snoop Dogg (“He’s an insanely cool dude”) and U.S. tennis star Coco Gauff (the subject turned to pickleball). To the man who requested if she was an Olympian after which wrongly guessed which sport: “All 5’10” of me, 200 kilos — a gymnast. Mistaken!”

What’s #beastbeautybrains?

Maher makes use of a #beastbeautybrains hashtag with the goal of spreading physique picture positivity and bringing extra consideration to rugby and girls’s sports activities generally.

From the U.S.-branded bikini, to the rugby uniform to the fashionable formal Ralph Lauren garments, Maher wears all of them with delight and seemingly equal consolation in an enormous vary of images and reels of her Olympic wardrobe.

She’s robust — her stiff-arm shoving away tried tackles in opposition to Japan and France have been loads proof of that.

She’s quick — working nearly the size of the sphere to attain in opposition to Japan confirmed that.

She’s sensible — in addition to gaining a nursing diploma, following within the footsteps of her mother, she labored to graduate from rugby fanatic to skilled athlete. Subsequent step is to make its pay higher.

She summed it up in a fast put up to her million-plus Instagram followers earlier than the opening ceremony on Friday.

“Because the Olympics formally begin, I would like you all to try all of the totally different physique sorts on show. All physique sorts matter. All physique sorts are worthy from the smallest gymnast to the tallest volleyball participant, from a rugby participant to a shot-putter and a sprinter. All our bodies are lovely and might do superb issues. So actually see your self in these athletes and know you are able to do it, too.”

How is the US ladies’s rugby sevens group doing in Paris?

The U.S. superior to a semifinal match in opposition to defending champion New Zealand with a 17-7 quarterfinal win over Britain, avenging a loss to the British on the similar stage in Tokyo three years in the past.

Maher performed an instrumental position within the first attempt, utilizing her huge fend to brush off one tackler, attract a defender after which launch Tapper into the clear on the left wing to attain.

She made one other barging, long-range run simply earlier than halftime to make sure the U.S. saved momentum.

Sammy Sullivan and Kristi Kirshe scored second-half tries to seal the win.

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AP Summer time Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games