Who Is Olympian Ilona Maher? Meet TikTok's Favorite Rugby Star Who's Going Viral at the Paris Games

Ilona Maher has helped lead the Team USA women’s rugby sevens player to a bronze medal for the first time — with the support of Jason Kelce and TikTok fans

Ilona Maher isn’t just an Olympic rugby sevens player — she’s also an internet sensation.

The Olympian has helped lead the Team USA women’s rugby sevens team to the medal round, where they placed bronze, which has yet to be accomplished before. On her journey, she’s picked up former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce as a fan and skyrocketed to fame on social media after posting videos of what it’s really like to be an Olympian.

“First, it was a way to get my message out there, a way to get my team out there,” Maher told The Guardian ahead of her Olympic performance on July 28. “Especially in Tokyo, it worked to [encourage] people to tune in to our sport, get eyes on our sport."

She continued, “Then, personally, it’s become a brand-building thing. I’m a female athlete in a sport that’s not very big, especially in America. It’s not a money-making sport … I want to make sports a career and I don’t think many women can think that way.”

Though she passed the million-follower mark during the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Maher again gained popularity during the 2024 Olympic Games, especially after she convinced Kelce to be a superfan of the rugby team.

So who is Ilona Maher? Here’s everything to know about the Olympic rugby sevens star and her social media fame.

Maher only started playing rugby at 17

Maher grew up in Burlington, Vt. playing field hockey, basketball and softball. When she was 17, she discovered rugby and realized she enjoyed playing it more than the other sports — but never thought she’d go professional, she told The Guardian.

“The sport fit my body like a glove,” she told Women’s Health in a June 2024 interview.

She went to college at Quinnipiac University

Maher signed to Quinnipiac University in Connecticut where she was awarded the MA Sorensen Award in the 2016-2017 season for being the nation’s top collegiate women’s rugby player.

Maher graduated from the school with a degree in nursing before joining the U.S. national women’s rugby team. However, she never planned to make rugby her profession.

“I don’t really consider rugby a career, because it’s not like I can retire with millions,” Maher told Women’s Health.

She is part of the women’s sevens rugby team at the Olympics

Maher first appeared on the international stage at the Olympics in 2021 in Tokyo where the women’s rugby sevens team finished in 6th place. Now, she’s back in the Olympic Village, using her social media platform to bring attention to an otherwise overlooked sport.

“It is really important to have a profile, and a profile for our sport,” Maher 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 that we should be.”

She continued that she wanted the U.S. to get to know her teammates and see they were just as able as their male peers.

“It’s important in the U.S. where so much attention is on other sports,” she said “And 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 made Jason Kelce into a fan of women’s rugby

To the end of bringing national attention to women’s rugby, Maher pled her case to Kelce, convincing him to become a superfan in a since viral TikTok. Pointing to rapper Flavor Flav’s sponsorship of the women’s U.S. water polo team to get them to the Paris Olympics, Maher told Kelce he could be a similar mascot for rugby.

"Women's water polo has Flavor Flav as their superfan," Maher explained to Kelce, building her argument. "You are a girl dad."

"Do you get anything from being our superfan? No," Maher joked in the clip while Kelce stroked his beard, appearing deep in consideration. "There's no reward, no money, no benefits, I don't think I can get you free stuff."

"You're a great salesman," Kelce replied. "I am officially a fan of women's rugby, Olympics."

“We got Jason Kelce!” Maher excitedly announced to the cheers of her team behind her.

Just a few days later, Kelce repped a shirt with Maher’s face all over it while cheering for the team at the bronze medal match.

She’s vocal about body positivity

Maher uses her platform not only to advocate for her sport, but also to promote body positivity, especially after receiving criticism. In one July 2024 video, the athlete clapped back at a TikTok user who presumed her BMI was over 30, which would put her in the “overweight” category.

She responded to the comment in a TikTok, sharing that her BMI was 29.3 and that she’d been considered overweight since elementary school. Maher explained that she spoke to a dietician and he confirmed that BMI was not a useful tool to measure the health of an athlete (the formula has also been historically flawed).

“BMI doesn’t tell you what I can do. It doesn’t tell you what I can do on the field. How fit I am. It’s just a couple of numbers put together,” Maher said. “It doesn’t tell you how much muscle I have, or anything like that. So yeah, I do have a BMI of 30. I am considered overweight.”

She added that of the 200 lbs she weighs, 170 lbs are lean muscle mass. “Alas, I’m going to the Olympics — and you’re not,” she concluded the video.

“It’s important for girls to see me out there showing that with this frame, with my broad shoulders, being big can be beautiful, and it doesn’t take away from your femininity,” Maher told Women’s Health.

Maher showed what life is like in the Olympic Village — and pretended it was Love Island

Maher has focused on content about life in the Olympic Village, including joking about the cardboard beds and turning her experience there into an episode of Love Island.

Before she flew to Paris, Maher made a TikTok about her plan to “couple up early on,” joking that was her goal in the Olympic Village, rather than preparing to play rugby. Once there, Maher continued the bit, posting a video of herself in a Team USA uniform and bikini, writing that a “hot new bombshell has entered the Village,” spoofing off of Love Island’s famous line that says “villa” rather than “village.”

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