Ilona Maher and Simone Biles are getting closer at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Besides being the best of the best in their respective sports, the American rugby player (27) and the American artistic gymnast (also 27) have more in common than winning gold!
“So we all know the legendary Simone Biles,” Maher, who helped Team USA win bronze at the rugby tournament on Tuesday, July 30, began in a TikTok video posted on Thursday, August 1.
The athlete explained: “Simone Biles made her own pins and my sisters also made pins for me.”
While filming, Maher focused the camera on her special accessory.
“So I gave my pin to Simone and she’s going to give me hers,” Maher continued.
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The clip then cut to a smiling Biles walking into the outdoor area where Maher was waiting as she held out her hand in anticipation of what she was about to receive.
As Biles got closer, her smile got bigger. And as she promised, she handed her pin to Maher.
“Oh! So exciting,” Maher said.
“@Simone Biles my Christmas present @Olympics @Team USA @paris2024,” she wrote on TikTok.
Ilona Maher; Simone Biles.
Michael Steele/Getty; Tom Weller/VOIGT/Getty
Beyond the competition, both women made it known that their voices were being heard.
On July 10, Maher responded on TikTok to a user who appeared to make a rude comment about the rugby player’s weight.
Simone Biles felt ‘overwhelmed’ with anxiety in the Olympic village: ‘I was shaking’
“Hi, thank you for this comment. I think you were trying to grill me, but this is actually a fact. I have a BMI of 30. Well, 29.3 to be exact,” Maher said at the start of the clip.
After declaring that she had been “considered overweight her whole life,” Maher recalled a time in high school when she had to have a physical exam and hand in her results to the principal’s office — with the word “overweight” written on her paper.
She said that her whole life is mostly the same.
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Team United States’ Ilona Maher #2 runs with the ball during the women’s rugby sevens quarterfinal match.
Michael Steele/Getty
Maher also gave a short lesson on BMI, adding: “Ouch, I’m going to the Olympics – and you’re not.”
Meanwhile, Biles has been open about prioritizing her mental health at these Olympics.
“I think I used to repress my trauma, and now I’ve learned to talk about it and let it go in a way. That really helped me and that’s why I’m doing what I’m doing today,” said the most decorated American gymnast in Olympic history. TodayHoda Kotb on Wednesday, July 31, about her therapeutic journey.
To find out more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, come to people.com and check out the live coverage before, during and after the games. And sign up for Going for Gold, our Olympic newsletter, to receive the biggest stories from the Games straight to your inbox. Watch the Paris Olympics and Paralympics starting July 26 on NBC and Peacock.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education