Ilona Maher went from getting a bronze medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics for rugby to getting second place in season 33 of Dancing with the Stars. Through these past few months, Maher showed young girls the power of having confidence in themselves and not doubting what their bodies are capable of. Dance and rugby are on opposite sides of the sports spectrum. Rugby is known to be a very rough sport, and dance is known to be a very elegant and graceful sport. But a line that once separated the two is now blurred, thanks to Maher.
Maher is five foot ten inches tall and has an athletic and muscular physique. After years of playing hockey, basketball, and softball, she tried rugby for the first time at 17. When discussing playing rugby in 2019, Maher shared, “I think it just clicked right when I started playing.” Soon after her rugby career took off, her social media presence did too. She played women’s Rugby Sevens in the Paris Olympics, Tokyo Olympics, two Women’s Rugby world cups, and two Pan American Games. She started TikTok in March of 2021 and truly took off when she would post behind the scenes at the Tokyo Olympics. She would post things about the Olympic Village and how the Women’s rugby team kept their femininity while playing a rough contact sport. Because Maher was an Athlete before an influencer, she would often just post funny moments and not think too hard about going with the trends and making her videos look the best.
Maher continued to post about her everyday life and rugby over the past three and a half years. She gained even more of a following during the 2024 Olympics when she continued her tradition of posting about what life in the Olympic Village was like. Maher’s social media presence and positive influence on the women’s rugby team led her to be chosen for Dancing With The Stars. Going from rugby to dance is a huge adjustment. But Maher did not back down. She showed resilience, vulnerability, and grace in the show.
One of the most inspiring traits that Maher has shown to the world is that it is normal to go through ups and downs when coming to terms with how your body looks. Alyssa Gobrecht, a Pennridge senior athlete and a Dancing With The Stars fan, shared that it was “inspiring to see her vulnerability throughout the weeks.” Maher wasn’t afraid to let others see her when she was struggling with learning how to dance and being elegant when all her life she was told that she looked very masculine. She knew that other young girls have gone through or are currently going through parts of their lives wondering why they can’t look a certain way, even when they are dominating the sports world.
Mahers broadcasted growth in her own self-confidence and even started a small TikTok trend where young girls who play sports post a picture sharing negative thoughts they have had about their own bodies, then sharing a picture of Maher and how she helped them learn that just because they have an athletic build does not mean they are not feminine and can’t be graceful. She followed this up with her final dance when she danced to the song “Femininomenon” by District 78 ft. Mona Rue. In this dance, she walked the audience through her rugby career and then showed off her dancing skills while performing to a song all about femininity.
Young female athletes worldwide are now looking towards Maher as a role model. Grace Obarowski, a Dancing With The Stars fan since season 31, shared, “Ilona is a great role model for the younger generations because of her role in changing beauty standards and positivity.” She has taken an experience that impacted her so greatly throughout her life and used it to be a teacher and a role model for girls of all ages who want to be rough, be the best in their sport, and have strong muscles but also want to wear beautiful dresses, and be looked at as very feminine, and graceful.
Sources:
https://www.ensemblemagazine.co.nz/articles/ilona-maher-rugby-tiktok-star
https://time.com/6085717/ilona-maher-tiktok-rugby-olympics/
https://www.teamusa.com/profiles/ilona-maher-1118568
https://beyondsport.org/2024/08/02/ilona-maher-promotes-body-positivity-at-the-olympics/
