Ilona Maher recently became an Olympic rugby champion, securing a bronze medal for America after the match against Australia on June 30. This is the first-ever medal won for American women's rugby sevens. However, the 27-year-old is more than just a rugby player, she is a long-time internet sensation and advocates body positivity through the lens of feminity and sport.
Maher and her ideology
With a whopping 2.4 million followers on her Instagram, Maher is redefining what it means to be a woman in sport. She talks about the double standards that exist around body types when it comes to sportswomen. Appearing ''feminine'' in the public eye is given undue importance and increases the pressure to be good at their sport while also maintaining a certain socially appropriate body image.
ESPNW reports that 68 percent of female athletes say they feel pressured to be pretty and 30 percent feel afraid of being ''too muscular''.
Maher has spoken many times about this very issue and believes that she can embrace her feminity while also being the best in her aggressive, ''manly'' sport.
Maher had previously played field hockey, basketball, and softball before she chose to pursue her career in rugby at 17. In an interview with AOL, she said, ''The sport has a lot of stereotypes around it. It's something that I've tried to debunk if that's the right word. Rugby's a very physical game. But I also think you don't have to sacrifice your femininity or your beauty playing it. That's a little bit why I wear the lipstick when I play.''
She added, ''As women, a lot of times our body has been this object to be looked at and to be objectified and I hate that there are girls out there that feel like they don't have a purpose for their body and so they want to change it constantly.''
Social media presence
Maher stands at 5 foot 11 and has openly stated that she weighs 200 pounds,170 of which is just lean muscle. She once wittingly addressed a hate comment on TikTok that said, ''I bet that person has a 30% BMI''.
Maher admitted that yes indeed, she does have a BMI of 30 or ''29.3 to be more exact''.
She went on to illustrate how she has been dealing with being called overweight her whole life and how went on to eventually embrace it. She invalidated the comment completely by explaining how BMI isn't an accurate measure of health for athletes, it only considers height and weight and not muscle mass.
There is something so heartening about women accepting their bodies on social media, while also creating a safe space for others to do so. At the top of her Instagram feed, Maher wrote a love letter to her body.
Paris Olympics 2024
With her legendary win at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Maher took home the first Olympic medal in rugby sevens by an American woman. The national hero is indeed inspiring young girls everywhere to take up the grossly underrepresented sport.
An Instagram user said, ''From a college rugby player- this win means more to us than anything. Y'all just put this sport on the map and hopefully, we see more rise in the sport and more opportunities arise for young (and older) girls to get into rugby!!''
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