Ilona Maher: how a US rugby sevens player became one of the biggest stars of the Games

Ilona Maher might not have the professional résumé of Australia’s Maddison Levi, Great Britain’s Ellie Kildunne or New Zealand’s Portia Woodman-Wickliffe. But the 27-year-old from Vermont is surely one of the biggest stars of the Olympic women’s rugby sevens competition that kicked off Sunday at the Stade de France, at least among people under 30.

One of the breakout social media personalities of the Tokyo Games three years ago, Maher has gone on to amass more than 1.4m Instagram followers with 1.6m more on TikTok, a combined reach that far outstrips more established US Olympic stars like Katie Ledecky and Noah Lyles. And those figures have only swelled in the three days since the Paris Games opened.

“First, it was a way to get my message out there, a way to get my team out there,” Maher said of her side hustle on Saturday. “Especially in Tokyo, it worked to [encourage] people to tune in to our sport, get eyes on our sport. Then, personally, it’s become a brand-building thing. I’m a female athlete in a sport that’s not very big, especially in America. It’s not a money-making sport …. I want to make sports a career and I don’t think many women can think that way.”

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Social media has proven a great equalizer in an attention economy, where athletes who have devoted their lives to sports that don’t make you rich or famous can break through the white noise and elevate their profiles with a bit of authenticity and savoir-faire. Few have managed it better than Maher, who has leveraged a reach that would be the envy of most TV networks into deals with brands like Secret, L’Oréal and New Era. She’s also partnered with former college swimmer Ann Ragan Kearns to launch a skincare line called Medalist.

“It is really important to have a profile, and a profile for our sport,” Maher said. “It’s about building the brand. We are female rugby players – we’re not getting million dollar contracts, we’re not getting paid the money that we should be. Me and my friends are keen on getting the sport out there and getting us noticed. It’s important in the US where so much attention is on other sports. And I think it’s just about showing the personality that the women have. The game is very strong, not just for men, but for women too.”

Maher played field hockey, basketball and softball in high school, but switched to rugby when she was 17 after finding she enjoyed it more than her other chosen sports. She went on to play at Connecticut’s Quinnipiac University, where she took an undergraduate degree in nursing, before joining the US national team before the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics. The Eagles finished sixth there but Maher’s lighthearted takes on Olympic Village life for athletes, which invited her followers behind the scenes, made her one of the social media revelations of the fortnight and sparked a tenfold spike in her following. Her recent viral hits since touching down in Paris include a paean to team handball, a stress test of the cardboard beds in the village and a Love Island-inspired clip about finding a romantic partner while at the Summer Games.

But it’s Maher’s promotion of positive body image that has done the most to set her channel apart. “I want you all to take a look at all the different body types on display,” Maher said in a clip posted during Friday’s opening ceremony that’s been viewed more than 4m times. “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.”

While Maher is a social autodidact who learned on the fly while bored, there’s no shortage of Olympians hoping to follow her path. Visa offered the more than 100 athletes in their endorsement portfolio a masterclass in digital storytelling and engagement ahead of the Olympics led by influencers and social media creators, which included guidance on digital storytelling and advice on how to manage pitfalls like online abuse. But not unlike elite sport itself, the hard truth is some things can’t be coached.

For all of Maher’s success as a creator, there were signs on Sunday that her performance on the field may be catching up to her social chops. In the United States’ 36-7 rout of Japan, Maher shoved off a defender with a punishing stiff-arm on a solo run to the tryline that was one of the biggest highlights of the match. Later, she added another long second-half try to help the Americans to a 24-5 win over Brazil that lifted them to 2-0 in pool play and secured their place in Monday’s quarter-finals.

Afterward when informed that recently retired Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce was in attendance, Maher told reporters that she’d hoped to enlist him as a stateside evangelist for the sport. “Hopefully, he can see that rugby sevens is not so different to football and he can bring a bit of attention to it in America,” she said.

Before leaving the stadium, she’d already cornered him for a video that, to no one’s surprise, was already past 2m views on Monday morning. For the irrepressible Maher, who has admitted to spending up to six hours a day on TikTok, it’s all in a day’s work. “Do I wish I had to do it?” she said. “No, but I love what it’s done for me.”