U.S. girls’s rugby star Ilona Maher has taken the 2024 Paris Olympics by storm along with her dynamic performances on and off the sector. A TikTok favourite, she’s made her mark on social media with behind-the-scenes movies on the Summer season Video games.

Her common Paris movies have coated:

Maher beforehand garnered consideration on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, along with her movies on:

Other than her social media fanfare, Maher has an achieved athletic pedigree and profession:

• Father performed rugby at Saint Michael’s Faculty

• Started enjoying rugby at 17

• Performed rugby at Quinnipiac Faculty for 3 years

• Awarded the MA Sorensen Award for Nationwide Participant of the Yr in 2017

• Olympics: 2024 Paris Olympics – Bronze medal; 2020 Tokyo Olympics – sixth (Crew – Ladies)

• World Championships: 2022 – 4th (Crew – Ladies); 2018 – 4th (Crew – Ladies)

For extra Olympics protection, try the ESPN hub web page for breaking information, athlete profiles, options, and extra.

Rugby sevens star Ilona Maher has been an enormous hit on social media because the U.S. girls’s crew has progressed to the semifinals on the Paris Olympics.

She’s been busy making humorous TikTok and Instagram reels and in addition empowering posts about girls and sports activities. She’s additionally producing some large hits on opponents at Stade de France as a daily starter for the U.S. girls’s rugby sevens crew.

Her video recruiting lately retired NFL heart Jason Kelce as an excellent fan for the No. 4-ranked U.S. crew after their first two video games on Monday magnified the eye.

The 27-year-old Maher is not new to this. Her hilarious takes on village life within the pandemic-era Tokyo Olympics three years in the past made her one of many breakout stars of these Video games.

Maher was a collegiate star at Quinnipiac College in Hamden, Connecticut. She was a nursing pupil there and spent three years taking part in rugby on the faculty after transferring there for sophomore 12 months, in line with the college.

How did Maher grow to be well-known on TikTok?

Spectators had been barred from Olympic venues in Tokyo, and there is all the time strict guidelines anyway about who’s allowed into the athletes’ village. These weren’t boundaries for Maher. With followers locked out beneath harsh social-distancing guidelines, her social media followers obtained a humorous inside have a look at the Video games — beginning with the bedding.

Maher and her rugby sevens teammates examined out the cardboard beds in a TikTok video that gained hundreds of thousands of views, displaying them performing CPR on the mattress, doing yoga and even throwing a mock tantrum.

What’s Maher doing through the Paris Olympics?

One other Olympic village, extra cardboard beds.

“Hey everybody, we’re again testing out the cardboard beds. My mattress goes to interrupt, sure, however I’ll do it anyway,” Maher says by means of introduction to the video that confirmed her and a few of her teammates wrestling on the beds, doing gymnastics strikes and Irish jigs, amongst different issues. Nothing to lose sleep over.

Her U.S. teammates, together with Nicole Heavirland, Naya Tapper and Sammy Sullivan, usually make it into Maher’s posts. Then there’s the individuals she runs throughout on the Olympics — like Snoop Dogg (“He is an insanely cool dude”) and U.S. tennis star Coco Gauff (the subject turned to pickleball). To the man who requested if she was an Olympian after which wrongly guessed which sport: “All 5’10” of me, 200 kilos — a gymnast. Unsuitable!”

What’s #beastbeautybrains?

Maher makes use of a #beastbeautybrains hashtag with the intention of spreading physique picture positivity and bringing extra consideration to rugby and girls’s sports activities normally.

From the U.S.-branded bikini, to the rugby uniform to the fashionable formal Ralph Lauren garments, Maher wears all of them with satisfaction and seemingly equal consolation in an unlimited vary of pictures and reels of her Olympic wardrobe.

She’s robust — her stiff-arm shoving away tried tackles in opposition to Japan and France had been a lot proof of that.

She’s quick — operating virtually the size of the sphere to attain in opposition to Japan confirmed that.

She’s good — in addition to gaining a nursing diploma, following within the footsteps of her mother, she labored to graduate from rugby fanatic to skilled athlete. Subsequent step is to make its pay higher.

She summed it up in a fast put up to her million-plus Instagram followers earlier than the opening ceremony on Friday.

“Because the Olympics formally begin, I would like you all to try all of the completely different physique varieties on show. All physique varieties matter. All physique varieties are worthy from the smallest gymnast to the tallest volleyball participant, from a rugby participant to a shot-putter and a sprinter. All our bodies are lovely and might do superb issues. So really see your self in these athletes and know you are able to do it, too.”

How is the US girls’s rugby sevens crew doing in Paris?

The U.S. superior to a semifinal match in opposition to defending champion New Zealand with a 17-7 quarterfinal win over Britain, avenging a loss to the British on the identical stage in Tokyo three years in the past.

Maher performed an instrumental position within the first strive, utilizing her large fend to brush off one tackler, attract a defender after which launch Tapper into the clear on the left wing to attain.

She made one other barging, long-range run simply earlier than halftime to make sure the U.S. saved momentum.

Sammy Sullivan and Kristi Kirshe scored second-half tries to seal the win.

Tom Daley: Household first

Whereas he did not defend the title he received in Tokyo three years in the past, this time Daley had the chance to medal in entrance of his two sons Robbie and Phoenix and his husband, Dustin Lance Black. At Tokyo 2020, the Video games have been cocooned from most people as a part of coronavirus countermeasures.

To Daley, performing in entrance of his boys on the grandest stage, may imply as a lot because the fifth piece of Olympic silverware he received – if no more.

“Right now has been magical,” mentioned Daley, who was additionally flag-bearer for Group GB together with Helen Glover. “Having the ability to compete in entrance of my household and to see them within the crowd and see all of them get excited.

“Earlier than we even began I feel we have been actually pleased with the way it all went, and to come back away with one other medal to finish the set for me has been actually, fairly wonderful.

“I imply it is actually like a 12 months in the past I did not know if I used to be even going to make the group, I did not know if I used to be going to qualify a spot for GB and to come back away with one other medal…

“It’s simply so particular.”

Daley took a two-year timeout following Tokyo. He solely returned as a result of his older son Robbie mentioned he wished to see Daley compete on the Olympics, fueled by an unexpectedly emotional journey to the USA Olympic & Paralympic Museum in Colorado Springs.

For Los Angeles – the place Daley now resides, describing it as doubtlessly his “second dwelling Video games” after London 2012 – the youthful Phoneix might have the casting vote this time. He’s the oldest member of the group now, and he will probably be previous come 2028.

“Phoenix my youngest son will probably be sufficiently old to ask me to return after which that is it,” Daley mentioned. “I do not know, we’ll see. I feel for proper now I simply wish to get pleasure from this second after which we’ll make future selections afterward.”

NPR is in Paris for the 2024 Summer time Olympics. For extra of our protection from the video games head to our newest updates.

Among the many fan favorites on the Paris Olympics is Tom Daley, Britain’s most adorned diver.

On Monday morning, Daley took silver within the males’s synchronized 10-meter platform occasion with teammate Noah Williams. China’s Lian Junjie and Yang Hao gained gold, whereas Canada’s Rylan Wiens and Nathan Zsombor-Murray earned bronze.

Daley, 30, now has 5 Olympic medals in his assortment, together with one gold and three bronze.

Even earlier than Daley’s efficiency on Monday, followers from world wide have been beaming to see him on the Olympics. Daley deliberate to retire after the Tokyo Video games, however had a change of coronary heart after visiting the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum in Colorado.

“On the finish, there was this video of what it means to be an Olympian, and naturally, by the top of it, I used to be crying, and Robbie turned to me and mentioned, ‘What is the matter, Papa, what is the matter?’ I mentioned I missed diving and I missed the Olympics,” Daley informed Olympics.com, referring to his oldest son. “And Robbie was like, ‘I need to see you dive on the Olympics.’ And that was that.”

On high of expertise, followers love Daley for his humor, his household and his knitting — amongst different causes.

The world watched Daley develop up

Daley made his Olympic debut at simply 14 years previous in 2008, turning into the youngest athlete to compete for Britain on the Video games in almost 50 years. He didn’t win a medal in Beijing, but it surely was clear that he had an extended, promising profession forward of him.

The world watched on as Daley grew taller and his voice deepened. Followers additionally admired Daley’s honesty about being bullied by classmates after the Olympics. At 14, Daley quickly withdrew from faculty in consequence. Later in life, he grew to become an advocate in opposition to bullying.

“Should you’re being bullied in school, you are not the one one,” he informed the BBC in 2009.

Then, main as much as his second Olympics, followers noticed 17-year-old Daley navigate the lack of his father to mind most cancers in 2011.

The next yr, the younger diver took residence his first Olympic medal — a bronze — in London. He did it once more in 2016. And in 2020, at age 27, Daley struck gold, in addition to bronze once more, in Tokyo and have become probably the most adorned diver in Britain’s historical past.

He’s a household man

Daley isn’t the one individual his followers adore, but additionally his husband and two younger sons.

From the stands in Paris, Daley’s 6- and 1-year-old boys wore “Workforce Daley” T-shirts, whereas husband Dustin Lance Black’s eyes watered with pleasure as Daley carried out.

Daley has been in a relationship with Black since 2013, when Daley boldly informed the world he was in a relationship with a person through a video on Youtube.

“I met somebody, and it made me really feel so glad, so protected and all the things simply feels nice, and effectively that somebody is a man,” he mentioned in 2013.

Since then, Daley has additionally been a distinguished activist for LGBTQ rights.

And he knits!

Out of the pool, Daley captured individuals’s hearts along with his favourite pastime: knitting.

On his social media accounts, Daley frequently posts recommendations on the right way to knit and images of his handmade items. However his most viral and lauded knitting second occurred on the Tokyo Olympics, when cameras captured Daley knitting within the stands.

In an interview with NPR after the Tokyo Olympics, Daley mentioned it was initially his coach who urged he strive knitting as a result of he is “horrible at sitting nonetheless and resting and recovering.”

“It simply was my mindfulness, my meditation, my calm and my strategy to escape the stresses of on a regular basis life and, particularly, going into an Olympics,” he informed NPR.

His ardour for yarn is so sturdy that he launched his personal knitting store, in addition to wrote a ebook, Made with Love, which incorporates a few of his favoriting knitting and crocheting patterns.

Already, clips of Daley knitting in his seat whereas watching this yr’s Video games are making the rounds — bringing pleasure to the knitting neighborhood and sports activities followers alike.

Canadian swimmer Kyle Masse had simply accomplished her semifinal warmth within the 100-m breaststroke on Monday, to qualify for tomorrow evening’s closing in that occasion, when a journalist requested her about one other athlete: Summer season McIntosh, the 17-year-old Canadian swimming phenom who earlier within the night received the gold medal within the 400-m particular person medley (IM), clinching her second medal of those Video games, and first Olympic gold. Sometimes, a person sport athlete isn’t too eager on discussing another person, in one other race, when fretting about her personal outcomes. 

Masse, nonetheless, began to gush. “She’s an inspiration to everybody,” says Masse. “And I do know so many younger swimmers in Canada, to have the ability to see her and see her success right here on the worldwide stage, is realizing for them that they’ll dream large and proceed to do no matter they put their thoughts to.”

McIntosh caught the top of Masse’s observations, and expressed gratitude. Then Masse stepped out of the media scrum to let swimming’s future—to not point out very a lot its current— take middle stage. 

Evening three of competitors within the Olympic pool in Nanterre, France, simply west of Paris, continued to see slower-than anticipated instances, due, some folks suppose, to the comparatively shallow depth that creates uneven circumstances and slows an athlete’s swim. McIntosh was the one one who crushed the sector, profitable her race by practically 6 seconds, forward of silver medalist Katie Grimes and bronze winner Emma Weyant, each of Group USA. Although the 4 different finals on Monday have been shorter distances, no race was determined by greater than .54 seconds. The lads’s 200-m freestyle closing was a specific thriller, with Romanian David Popovici edging Matthew Richards of Nice Britain by 0.02 seconds: Luke Hobson of the U.S. received bronze, ending 0.07 seconds behind Popovic. 

Don’t equate sluggish racing with boring racing. 

Group USA completed with 4 medals on the evening. Moreover Grimes, Weyant and Hobson, Ryan Murphy completed third within the 100-m backstroke, behind Thomas Ceccon of Italy, who received with a time of 52.00 seconds, and Jiayu Xu, who earned silver in 52.32-seconds. Murphy’s time was 52.39 seconds.  He received this occasion in 2016, in Rio, and completed with one other bronze in Tokyo. 

Afterwards, Murphy came upon the gender of his future youngster: his spouse Bridget, who’s anticipating in January, held up an indication at La Protection Space that stated  “It’s A Woman.” 

“That basically introduced this evening as much as a complete different degree,” he says. 

American Lilly King completed fourth within the 100-m breaststroke, the occasion she received on the Rio Olympics and stays the present world file holder in. She completed with a bronze in Tokyo, however was in good spirits in Paris regardless of simply lacking a medal. Within the runup to Tokyo, she was burned out. “I do know this race occurred three years in the past, nevertheless it utterly broke me,” she stated. ‘I don’t really feel damaged tonight.” Heats within the 200-m breaststroke begin Wednesday. 

The evening belonged to McIntosh, the 400-IM world file holder who now provides an Olympic gold to her mantle. McIntosh, who made her Olympic debut in Tokyo at 14, led at each flip; by the breaststroke portion, from 200 by 300-m, it was barely a two-person race, with McIntosh retaining her lead over Grimes by a wholesome distance. By the point the ultimate freestyle leg bought going, McIntosh felt sure she had it. “I type of regarded round to ensure I used to be in a cushty lead,” she stated. “I positively knew I had the gold medal.” 

McIntosh comes from an athletic household: Her mom, Jill (née Horstead), swam for Canada on the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and her older sister, Brooke, is an elite pairs determine skater who competed within the 2020 Youth Olympics. a pairs determine skater on the 2020 Youth Olympic Video games in Lausanne. She grew up taking part in soccer, and tried gymnastics, determine skating, horseback driving, and even inventive swimming. Her household named its cat, Mikey, after Michael Phelps. Two years in the past, McIntosh moved from Toronto to Sarasota, Fla. to coach with the Sarasota Sharks, an elite membership. McIntosh beat Katie Ledecky within the 800-m freestyle again in February, handing Ledecky her first loss in that occasion in 13 years. She edged Ledecky out for silver in 400-m freestyle on Saturday; then needed to go away the medals ceremony early to race within the 4 X 100m freestyle relay closing that very same evening (Canada completed fourth).    

She’s Ledecky’s inheritor obvious because the standout performer in international ladies’s swimming.  And with the 200-m butterfly and the 200-m IM nonetheless to come back, she’s removed from executed in Paris. “Each single time I get to race on the world stage, I be taught increasingly more about dealing with it mentally, bodily, and emotionally. And take a look at to not get too excessive or too low primarily based on my race outcomes. Clearly, I’m tremendous proud of the end result. However now, I’m all concerning the 200 fly.” 

That’s on Wednesday evening. Don’t miss the summer time of Summer season. 

The Dodgers acquired infielder Tommy Edman from the Cardinals and reduction pitcher Michael Kopech from the White Sox Monday as a part of a three-team deal.

The gamers had been a part of a commerce that sends right-hander Erick Fedde and outfielder Tommy Pham from the White Sox to the Cardinals. In return, the White Sox will get infielder-outfielder Miguel Vargas and two prospects — infielders Jeral Perez and Alexander Albertus — from the Dodgers.

Here is the breakdown.

• Cardinals purchase: right-handed pitcher Erick Fedde, outfielder Tommy Pham
• Dodgers purchase: infielder Tommy Edman, right-handed pitcher Michael Kopech
• White Sox purchase: infielder-outfielder Miguel Vargas, infield prospects Jeral Perez and Alexander Albertus

Edman, a 29-year-old veteran who has been in St. Louis since 2019, hasn’t performed for the Cardinals this season as a result of surgical procedure on his proper wrist. He his .248 with 13 residence runs and 47 RBI in 137 video games final yr. Edman has performed six totally different positions on the sector in his 5 Main League seasons.

He received the Rawlings Gold Glove in 2021 at second base for St. Louis.

Kopech, 28, is 2-8 this season with a 4.74 ERA and 9 saves. He struck out 49 batters in 43.2 innings. In his fifth Main League season, Kopech has 426 profession strikeouts.

Vargas appeared in 30 video games for the Dodgers. The 24-year-old hit .239 with three residence runs and 9 RBI.

They are saying always remember the place you got here from. For gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik, who helped deliver Staff USA obtain one thing it hadn’t accomplished since 2008, that is a gymnasium in Sterling, Massachusetts.

The Worcester native pommel horse specialist did his half Monday to earn bronze within the males’s group occasion — America’s first journey to the rostrum in 16 years.

The Sterling Academy of Gymnastics, the place Nedoroscik was as soon as a member, cheered him on at a watch occasion.

“My dad and mom began this enterprise in 1992 with the smallest of goals,” stated Matt Carbone. “However 32 years later, we now have an Olympic bronze medalist, and he is nonetheless happening to compete in occasion finals on Saturday. It is completely unbelievable.”

“They see the massive, large banner on the wall, they appear as much as it, they need to be like that,” boys gymnastics coach Jon Rydzefski stated. “It exhibits when you work arduous sufficient, you possibly can probably be doing what Stephen’s doing.”

It was on the academy that Nedoroscik had his humble beginnings.

“He was a typical goofy little boy that may mess around on the tools and get in bother at occasions and simply had enjoyable with gymnastics,” Carbone stated.

That free spirit was an unstoppable drive on the pommel horse.

“A number of athletes will look as much as the legends of their sports activities in basketball, baseball and soccer and all that. These guys haven’t got an entire lot to look as much as till the Olympics or the World Championships hit,” Carbone stated. “And now one among their very own teammates has made the world stage. He’ll be unbelievable for them to look as much as.”

His success is inspiring even the youngest of gymnasts as they seize the identical handles as an Olympic medalist.

“He encourages me to, like, practice arduous,” stated fifth-grader Alec Wild. “Work actually arduous. Eat wholesome.”

“They cherished it, they completely cherished it. And now they’re all revved up and able to practice even more durable, in order that they’ll attempt to get there sometime,” Carbone stated.

Richard and Paul Juda certified for the all-around closing. Nedoroscik certified in second place for the pommel horse closing with an unlimited rating of 15.200.

Within the males’s workforce closing, three gymnasts from every squad carried out in six occasions — flooring, pommel horse, nonetheless rings, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar.

There is no restrict or minimal variety of occasions a gymnast can carry out so long as all six occasions get three performances from every workforce. All scores depend.

“What it comes right down to is that [Nedoroscik’s] scores on pommel horse are a lot increased than everyone else on that one occasion that he provides an amazing quantity of potential rating,” stated NBC Sports activities gymnastics analyst Tim Daggett, a 1984 gold medalist.

Nedoroscik’s power occurs to be a weak point for the remainder of the U.S. squad, making him extra worthwhile to the workforce rating than as an all-around gymnast who has the identical strengths as the opposite athletes.

“That one routine from Nedoroscik provides Staff USA principally a full level over the following man in line for the USA,” Daggett stated.

Within the three years between the Tokyo and Paris Olympics, the U.S. males’s program has labored to extend its begin values, or issue scores, to assist shut the hole towards Japan, China and Nice Britain, who often medal within the workforce occasion.

Japan gained gold, China took silver, and Nice Britain completed fourth.

The relative lack of issue on the lads’s workforce made the Nedoroscik gamble all of the extra mandatory.

“We’re in a a lot completely different place now,” excessive efficiency director Brett McClure stated of the Paris Olympic workforce on the Olympic trials. “We’re going to have the ability to management our personal future. We’re going to get again on that podium. That’s the expectation, and that’s our purpose.”

McClure estimated the U.S. males’s scoring potential, together with Nedoroscik’s pommel horse routine, to be third on this planet heading into Paris, behind China and Japan. Within the qualifying spherical, they struggled with consistency and positioned fifth.

The present workforce’s abilities have elevated in issue by over a degree since final yr’s world championships, the place the U.S. workforce additionally gained a historic bronze medal.

The lads’s Olympic medal drought is in stark distinction to the U.S. ladies, who’ve gained a workforce medal at each Olympics since 1992. They gained the gold medal in 1996, 2012 and 2016.

The ladies’s workforce is loaded from prime to backside with gymnasts who carry out the world’s most troublesome abilities, giving it a buffer equal to a number of falls. The U.S. males haven’t got the identical benefit, however they’ll lastly dangle with one of the best on this planet once they execute effectively.

They have been near flawless Monday, whereas different prime groups suffered falls.

In Tokyo three years in the past, Russia took males’s workforce gold, host Japan silver and China bronze. Fourth-place Nice Britain and the fifth-place People missed the rostrum. Russian gymnasts gained’t compete in Paris due to the continued conflict in Ukraine.

The lads’s all-around closing is Wednesday at Bercy Enviornment in Paris.