Ilona Maher is back in action. No athlete gives fans insight on the Olympic experience quite like Maher, the American rugby player who first blew up on TikTok at the Tokyo Games with videos showing off her USA bucket hat and talking about shooting her shot with Romanian volleyball players. In Paris, you can find her riffing on her newfound affection for Team Handball (1.1 million views as of Sunday afternoon in France), goofing around with her teammates on one of the Olympic Village cardboard beds (1.4 million; one player did an impressive Irish jig), channeling Sue Sylvester, the bullying track-suited cheerleading coach played by Jane Lynch in Glee (11.1 million), and gushing about a guy who talked to her in the Village meal line (11.7 million; he asked her to move along and stop holding things up). She delighted in her “chic” Ralph Lauren Team USA dress, before changing her tune. “But you know what’s not cute,” she said. “I had to get fully naked in that public bathroom, have your tits dangling while you’re hunched over just trying to pee. That’s not cute.”
Perhaps no Olympian has done a better job of making a name for herself in a niche sport with a low public profile—especially in the United States—than Maher. Her combined 2.5 million followers on Instagram (1.1 million and counting) and TikTok (1.4 million and same) exceeds that of established Olympic sports figures like track star Noah Lyles (950K) and seven-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky (701K). In Tokyo, Maher’s TikTok following exploded, going from 86,000 to some 800,000, she says, in a matter of weeks. She’s been able to monetize that audience and do deals with brands like Secret, L’Oreal, and New Era to make a comfortable living. In early July she even launched, along with former college swimmer Ann Ragan Kearns, a skin-care company called Medalist.
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Maher grew up in Burlington, Vt., the daughter of a father who distributed movies on video—in the post-Blockbuster era, he works in lease financing—and a mother who worked as a nurse. She played field hockey, softball, and basketball as a kid, but decided to give rugby a try her senior year of high school. She loved it and went on to play the sport at Quinnipiac University, earning her undergraduate degree in nursing in 2018.
She started playing for the national team right after college. In February 2021, Maher began to lock in on TikTok. “We were stuck in quarantine at one of our tournaments, and I just needed something to do to pass the time,” she tells TIME. A few days after she posted a video wearing Team USA gear, a man approached her at a rugby event in Spain. “The guy was like, ‘Oh, you’re the TikTok girl,’” Maher says. “That was when I really understood, ‘Oh, this is a very powerful tool to get myself and my sport out there.’”
She uses her social media platform to promote positive body image. “I get the comments of being called a man, being called too masculine, because I have muscles,” says Maher. “I know that it’s from very sad, insecure people online. But I know they’re saying it to other girls as well. And that’s what I don’t like.” She posted a video a few hours before the opening ceremonies. “I want you all to take a look at all the different body types on display,” Maher said in a clip that’s generated 3.3 million views. “All body types matter. All body types are worthy. From the smallest gymnast to the tallest volleyball player, from a rugby player to a shot-putter, a sprinter. All body types are beautiful, can do amazing things. Truly see yourself in these athletes and know that you can do it too.”
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While France beat Fiji to win men’s rugby gold on Saturday—clinching the host country’s first gold of the Games— the women’s competition started Sunday at the Stade de France: the U.S. defeated Japan, 36-7, in the first matchup of pool play, and will face Brazil and France next in this round. Rugby ends on Tuesday, with the placement rounds and medals events, giving Maher and her teammates almost two weeks to live it up at the Olympic Village. “I’m excited to watch the other events,” says Maher. “Go to track, women’s water polo, hopefully get to see some of these dominant athletes just do their thing.”
The schedule also leaves more time for Maher to make her mark online with her fellow Olympians as co-stars. She may be done playing rugby in just a few days. But for Maher, the Games are truly just beginning.