American rugby star Ilona Maher could not but have gained a gold medal for her efficiency on the sphere, however she is already getting one from her rising variety of followers on social media.
The Vermont native has amassed greater than one million followers on Instagram and TikTok as a result of her movies showcasing life as a ladies’s rugby Olympian and has develop into one of the vital talked athletes on-line through the 2024 Olympics.
Right here is every little thing you’ll want to learn about Olympian Ilona Maher:
Why is Ilona Maher so fashionable?
Maher first grew to become a viral sensation forward of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, when she posted hilarious movies detailing life within the Olympic Village amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Maher continued her on-line fame after the Tokyo Video games, when she continued to put up about her each day life as a member of USA Rugby.
Her movies are sometimes humorous and promote ladies’s sports activities, notably rugby, in addition to physique positivity and acceptance.
Maher has addressed individuals who say she is simply too “masculine” for a lady in a few of her movies.
“There’ll at all times be detrimental folks on the market and so they put ladies in a field, and so they assume ladies must be fragile and petite and quiet and meek, however that is not the case,” Maher mentioned by tears in a 2022 video, in keeping with NBC Information. “Girls could be robust, and so they can have broad shoulders and so they can take up house and they are often huge.”
U.S. gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik says he was comfortable to be the final gymnast to compete with a medal on the road. Hear from him and his teammates after the U.S. gained bronze within the workforce occasion.
In one other video, that has just lately gone viral, Maher hilariously takes down a social media hater who calls out her close to 30% BMI (body-mass index), which she acknowledged technically classifies her as “obese.”
The 27-year-old mentioned within the video that she has been thought-about obese since she was a child, however she has spoken with a dietician and has discovered that BMI means “nothing” for athletes.
Maher mentioned she is 5 foot 10 inches, 200 kilos, and has round 170 kilos of lean mass.
“BMI would not actually inform you what I can do,” Maher added. “It would not actually inform you what I can do on the sphere. How match I’m. It is simply a few numbers put collectively. It would not inform you how a lot muscle I’ve or something like that.”
“So, yeah, I do have a BMI of just about 30, and I’m thought-about obese,” Maher added. “However I’ll the Olympics, and you are not.”
How is Ilona Maher doing on the 2024 Olympics?
Maher, who didn’t medal within the ladies’s rugby sevens in Tokyo, has simply helped Staff USA ladies’s rugby advance to their first Olympic semi-finals in Paris.
The U.S. is slated to tackle New Zealand on Tuesday, July 31, at 9:30 a.m. EST.
If Maher and the remainder of the American squad have been to win, they might go on to the gold medal match, guaranteeing them a medal. In the event that they have been to lose, they might go to the bronze medal match.
What does Ilona Maher do for work outdoors of rugby?
Maher studied to be a nurse at Quinnipiac College, graduating in 2018.
Nonetheless, Maher joined USA Rugby after faculty and has been spending her time coaching and posting to her loyal followers ever since.