Ilona Maher Is Waiting for Guys to Slide into Her DMs — but for Now She'll Continue Being Funny Online (and IRL)

Clad in an ultra-glam pink evening gown inspired by Marilyn Monroe’s famous number in 1953’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Ilona Maher — the Olympic medalist and hottest content creator at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games — jokes, “Oh, just in my casual Sunday outfit.”As the athlete, 28, works the camera in a series of looks reminiscent of iconic romantic comedies at her People shoot in Los Angeles, she hums along to Sabrina Carpenter’s album Short n’ Sweet.

It’s impossible to tell she’s had little time to rest since she and the U.S. women’s rugby team won the bronze medal at the Paris Olympics this summer — the first for Team USA in the sport.

Since returning from the City of Light, Maher has graced the cover of Sports Illustrated’s digital swimsuit issue, made Time’s Time100 Next list and walked the red carpet at the Emmy Awards. She’s also learned an entirely new skill — ballroom dancing — as she advanced to Week 6 on this season of Dancing With the Stars.

Alhassan Toure dress. Pomellato earrings.

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Amid all of this, she still manages to consistently produce compelling content — ranging from clever skits to powerful messages about body image — for her massive social media following (a combined 6.9 million between TikTok and Instagram).

She’s America’s Sweetheart, and Maher doesn’t reject the title. “I think when people say America’s Sweetheart, I’m like, ‘Me, the girl who plays rugby?’ Okay, I’ll take it. I am honored. And I like that we’re changing [who is] considered [a] role model for kids.”

So how does a girl from Burlington, Vt., become a relatable icon and queen of social media? Here are Ilona’s rules for life:

Make It Smaller

Before making history in Paris, Maher and the women’s rugby team finished in sixth place at the Tokyo Olympic Games. “It ruined me,” Maher admits of not winning a medal in 2021.

Maher turned the crushing defeat into a life lesson. Going into Paris, Maher says, her priority was “trying to enjoy all the moments with my teammates, whether I was on the bus ride, in the locker room, at practice, or in the gym.”

Knowing that millions of eyes were now on her, watching “any little mistake I make,” affected Maher’s rugby game. “It made me just not play like I did,” she says.

Her solution? “Make it smaller.”

“It was important for me to know why I play and that I was playing there for my teammates,” Maher notes. “I wasn’t just playing for the now-millions of people that were watching me, but I was playing for my teammates. I was playing for my program, and that gave me something to really ground myself.”

And it worked. Despite plenty of distractions, between her skyrocketing social following and celebrity fans like Jason Kelce coming out to support (in a shirt covered in pictures of her face), Maher led her team to a historic bronze medal finish in rugby.

Bibhu Mohapatra dress. Christian Louboutin shoes.

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Do What Scares You

Fresh off her big podium finish at the Olympics, Maher got an offer to compete on season 33 of Dancing With the Stars. She was a big fan, having grown up watching the show with her close-knit family, but the rugby star says she was “definitely hesitant” to accept. “I knew how hard it was going to be. I was not fooling myself that this would be an easy time.”

But Maher has never been one to take the easy way out. “I was like, ‘Okay, I want to do it, but I’m very scared to do it because I’m completely out of my comfort zone.'”

During the week of her People shoot, Maher was recovering from a disappointing performance on the show. In a much-talked-about moment, Maher cried while the show’s judges ripped apart the jive she performed with partner Alan Bersten on Hair Metal Night, which left her in the bottom three.

“Even though it was on national television, it felt natural to cry after my jive,” says Maher. “I knew I could do it better, and we practiced it so many times where I did do it better.”The pressure was on for the duo in the rehearsal studio too, where Maher is aware she’s been testing Bersten’s patience during rehearsals. “I keep telling him it’s okay to be frustrated with me, seriously. I would be too if I can’t figure out what’s happening.”

Competing on DWTS is “extremely hard” — exactly as Maher anticipated. “The hardest part, though, for me has been performing in front of the audience and not letting that get in my head.”

Staying present is key, and Maher already knows she’s capable of it. “It’s something I do with my teammates all the time where we just say, ‘Hey, connect. Give me a thumbs-up.’ So I literally do all this stuff on the rugby pitch. I need to figure out how to bring it to the ballroom.”

Still, she’s certain she made the right choice in accepting the DWTS challenge. “I think it’s making me a better person, and I’m really having the time of my life,” says Maher. “I’m so happy I did it.”

Own Your Insecurity

Opening the door to internet scrutiny, as she did with her nationally broadcast tears, is often a dangerous game of mental health roulette. Maher is both grateful about the opportunities social media has opened up to her and wary of the negative impact on her mind.

“It’s amazing how much love I get online, but then, of course, I always get the negatives,” she says.”I get people making assumptions about me, about my body, about who I am, sometimes just spreading blatant lies about me, and that’s hard.”

Her defense is to face it head-on.

Last month, Maher, wearing a bikini, shared a video on TikTok with the caption, “Can I be vulnerable for a minute?” Speaking directly to her followers, Maher admitted, “You know I like to keep it real with you, so I just wanted to let you know I’m not feeling too body confident right now. I think I’m making this video more to help myself out.”

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The video has 1.6 million views and the comment section is riddled with messages of appreciation. “It’s so nice to hear someone with your platform sharing this,” one user wrote.

But Maher says she “definitely wasn’t always outspoken” when it came to negative self-talk around her body, recalling “so many moments of me crying to my mom” because she was “a bigger girl.”

She’s come to realize that no one loves their body all the time.

“I just think it’s so normal, because I’ve seen what I would consider the most beautiful, skinniest, six-pack people still have body image issues, and I’m like, ‘What the heck? You’re what we’re all going for.’ And that was a light bulb for me.”

Maher’s takeaway: “Own your insecurity because we’re all just a little bit that way.”

Build a Circle of Trust

As her star rises, so does the pressure Maher faces. In overwhelming moments, she turns to her family. “The first people I go to are definitely my sisters,” Maher says of Olivia, 30, and Adrianna, 25.

Maher tells People she feels “grateful” to have “built-in best friends” in her siblings. “They are so supportive. They’ll go all over the world and watch me play rugby and wear the weirdest shirts or scream the loudest and do the funniest things.”

Maher says she’s also “very close” with her parents, Michael and Mieneke Maher. Mieneke, 59, an emergency room nurse in the delivery unit, is the reason the Olympian pursued a nursing career at Quinnipiac University. “I think she just has a deep sense of wanting to care for people,” says Maher.

And through her success in rugby, Maher and her father, 64 — who played the sport for decades — have grown closer. “He’s coached it, he’s reffed it, he plays it. He just loves it, so I’m happy that I get to do it for him because it’s another way that we get to connect.”

“He used to go to rugby tournaments or games, and he was always ‘Big Mike’ or ‘Mike,’ but now he’s ‘Ilona Maher’s dad,’ and I think he just beams with pride whenever he gets called that.”

She’s also ready to rise to the occasion when called upon. On Oct. 27 Maher shared on TikTok that during a trip to the nail salon in which she and a man were the only customers, two female workers delayed her departure long after her nails dried — for protection, she learned after he left. 

“They said, ‘Sorry we kept you so long; we just wanted you to be here with us while he was there,’ ” Maher explained in a video. “And I was like, I totally understood then why they did that.”

Seek a Proud Partner

With plenty on her plate, Maher hasn’t had much time to explore any romantic relationships. “What dating life?” she says to People with a laugh. “Honestly, I haven’t been on a date in years.”

Her busy schedule doesn’t allow Maher to dwell much on the absence of a love life. But every now and then, she wonders what the future has in store for her romantically.

“I was heading home from rehearsal, and I saw these people going out to bars, and I was like, ‘I’m young, I should be going out meeting people, talking to hot people.’ ”

Then the feeling faded. “I was like, ‘I’ve got to get to my couch, I’m tired, I’m doing too much.’ ”

Alhassan Toure dress. Pomellato earrings.

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While she waits for any potential suitors to slide into her DMs — “It’s all very positive moms that are like, ‘I love what you’ve done for my daughter,’ and I’m like, ‘Where’s the NFL players? I thought there’d be more. No billionaires in here?’ ” she cracks — Maher isn’t opposed to trying dating apps at some point.

As for what she’s looking for in a partner, Maher wants someone who can keep up with her sharp wit. “I recently was told by a man, ‘You flirt by making fun.’ I hear that, but I think it’s also just like I flirt and then you come back with something, and it’s like a back-and-forth that I really like, that sort of banter, I guess.”

Above all, Maher is looking for a partner who’s secure enough to handle her dizzying success.

“I’ve never really had somebody who’s come to my rugby games,” she says. “Somebody who’s really proud to see me shine and wants me to keep growing — someone who shows me off.”

Prepare to Pivot

As her personal and professional goals evolve, Maher has learned to embrace change.

She enjoyed the quick pace of her nursing studies. “I love solving a problem,” says Maher. “They’ve come in with this and their blood pressure is this — it’s almost a fun riddle to solve.”

But she liked rugby more. Senior year, Maher decided she’d pursue playing professionally. “I asked my nursing professors, ‘Do you think I should do this?’ and they said, ‘There will always be nurses needed. Go travel to the Olympics,’ and here I am now, two Olympics in.”

Looking ahead, Maher — who also earned her MBA at DeVry University in 2021 after starting her rugby career — says a return to nursing isn’t out of the question, but she’s more excited about building on her current momentum in media. “I would love to act,” she shares. “I can see myself as the boss assassin lady who comes in like, ‘Oh my God, it’s her,’ and then a slo-mo shredding or something. I also want to be Wonder Woman.”

The Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 are also a possibility, depending on where life takes her before then. “L.A. 2028 will be great if it happens,” she says, but Maher is currently focused on the “all this time in between” the next Olympic Games. “That’s my life.”

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Embrace the Joy

With the world at her fingertips — once she wraps up Dancing with the Stars, of course — America’s Sweetheart says she’s up for anything that comes next. 

Maher says she hopes the future “is full of really fun moments and joy with my friends and family.” 

“I hope it means I’m still in this space and I can travel, and I hope my sisters come along with me to do it. I hope there’s still sports in there and maybe some dance, but not too much dance,” she teases.

Maher also hopes there’s love in her future. “I love platonic love. I love the love I have with my teammates, with my friends, my sisters. Romantic love would be great too.”

For now, “I’m just riding this wave, I guess, and seeing where it takes me.”

Credits

Photographer Obidigbo Nzeribe

Cinematographer Eric Longden

Hair Marissa Marino

Makeup Joanna Simkin

Stylist Jason Rembert

Assistant Stylist Wilton White

Set Design Carlos Anthony Lopez / Winston Studios

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education