Who is Ilona Maher? Here’s what to know about the US women’s rugby sevens Olympian and TikTok star – NBC New York

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.