Ilona Maher

About

Ilona Maher is an American rugby player and an Olympic bronze medalist from Burlington, Vermont. The athlete garnered virality online in 2024 for her social media presence on TikTok and Instagram, where she routinely shares details about her life and training, as well as jokes and body-positivity content. She is the most-followed rugby player on Instagram with over 2 million followers as of July 2024. Maher has often responded to trolls calling her a "man" and accusing her of being on steroids, with many fans and celebrities coming out in support of her.

History

Ilona Maher was born in Burlington, Vermont on August 12th, 1996. She began playing rugby at the age of 17 after being encouraged to engage with the sport by her father, who played for Saint Michael's College. Maher continued to play rugby through college at Quinnipiac University, where she played center and won three National Intercollegiate Rugby Association (NIRA) championships before being named "Most Outstanding Player" after her senior season.

In 2021, Maher played for the U.S. women's rugby team at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Her videos on TikTok^[1] went viral in the days leading up to her first match, including one posted on July 22nd, 2021, in which she joked about testing out the cardboard beds in the Olympic Village, gathering over 7 million plays and 1 million likes in three years (seen below).

Following

Ilona Maher has over 2 million followers on her Instagram and 1.9 million followers on TikTok as of July 2024.

Online Presence

Ilona Maher continued to post about her life as an athlete online, with a December 7th, 2022, post in which she addresses the trolling she receives for being a muscular woman going viral.

The video^[2] shows a teary Maher talking about how hate comments about her, accusing her of being a man or of taking steroids, had ramped up over the past few months. Maher talks about coming to terms with her body and encourages women who see themselves in her not to shy away from taking up space in the world. The post gathered over 800,000 plays and 150,000 likes in two years (seen below).

On July 28th, 2024, the X account @NBCOlympics^[3] posted a video of Ilona Maher "stiff-arming" another player on the field, gathering over 2,000 likes in three days (seen below).

THE STIFF ARM 😤

Ilona Maher went absolutely BEAST mode. #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/G0IeO2g71D

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 29, 2024

The U.S. women's rugby team went on to win bronze at the 2024 Summer Olympics, a first for the team.

"Transvestigation" Attempts

Ilona Maher, a cisgender woman, often faces trolling from internet users who believe that her muscular build, broad shoulders and strong jawline are indicative of her being born male. Comments from such trolls came to the fore on X / Twitter in late July 2024 during the Paris Olympics, with anonymous accounts accusing her of secretly being a man.

A post by X^[4] user @TaraBull808 from July 26th, 2024, described Maher as an "'80s Brooke Shields," eliciting replies accusing her of being a man (seen below).

Unfounded attacks on Maher's feminity led to many internet users coming out in support of her around this timeframe. On July 30th, X^[5] user @CaseyBHead posted, "Gigastacy shows up in real life, and the RW bros are mad about it? I do not understand," gathering over 9,000 likes in a day (seen below).

Search Interest

External References