USA Women’s sevens star Ilona Maher has taken the sports world by storm this summer with her unique social media presence gripping the imagination of sports fans the world over.
Matching her incredible on-the-pitch prowess with an understanding of what makes a successful brand off it, Maher has become a trailblazer for rugby, and its athletes.
Whilst rugby fans the world over will be familiar with the likes of Antoine Dupont, Ruby Tui, Dan Carter and Siya Kolisi, Maher has tapped into a new audience who previously would not have followed the sport.
Building on her team’s bronze medal finish at the 2024 Olympics, Maher has seen her Instagram following skyrocket to 3.6m followers. For comparison, double World Cup-winning Springbok captain Kolisi is the second most followed rugby player with 1.3m followers. Trailing these two are former All Blacks legend Carter (1.1m) and Dupont (1m).
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Now taking her brand to the next level, Maher recently appeared on hit US late night show ‘Late Night With Seth Meyers’ to talk about a range of topics from the Olympics to what the sport has given her.
Starting off the conversation discussing her birthday at the games, the 28-year-old spoke about a special moment she and her team USA colleagues had at the closing ceremony.
“What I did was we were at the closing ceremonies and I was just telling everyone,’hey guys, don’t make it a big deal but it is my birthday, so whatever you want to do.’
“But we struck midnight when we were still out there in the stadium, so I was like everybody sing to me right now, yeah. So it was beautiful and there’s no better way to do a birthday than that.” Maher said.
Shifting the focus onto Maher’s medal, Meyers asked to see the bronze medal that Maher had brought with her to the show.
“Well, a lot People talk about their chains.
“That’s my chain, but it is heavy and it does kind of wear on the neck, which is, like you know, a fun burden to bear, wearing an Olympic medal.
“It’s a lot of work, but I will wear it more, of course.” She joked.
Delving deeper into the Olympics, Meyer asked the question many people wanted to know the answer to as to what life inside the Olympics village is like.
“I think everybody wants to know what it’s like living in the Olympic Village for the course of two-plus weeks Y’all think it’s a crazy place, when really it’s the most elite athletes focus on their craft for a while.
“So it’s a lot of fun, like you get to meet the best people in the world, but it is a very focused environment.
“But then as the events start to end, you know, you get to go to different houses, so it does become a little bit fun. But I will say I was focused on that medal for a little bit.”
Following some fun back and forth between Maher and Mayer, the host noted how much of an impact the USA 7s had on the American public.
“I think one of the nice things about you getting out there on social media is look; I don’t think a lot of Americans understand rugby, follow rugby, or have ever played rugby growing up.
“This was not only the first medal for the women’s team for America in 7-on-7, the first Olympic medal for America in over 100 years in rugby the sport,” Meyer said.
Shifting the focus back to Maher as an athlete, Meyer asked her how she got into the sport and what it has done for her personally.
“So I’ve always been an athlete, as you can probably tell by these shoulders. My dad was a rugby player, and he’s played for about 40-plus years now. Not to age him, but he’d always played.
“But he never got us into rugby, but I wanted to try it.
“My senior year of high school, I played one game, and I think it just clicked for me; it’s a sport that really encourages you to be physical and show what your body’s capable of.
“They want you to run as fast as you can and tackle as hard as you can. I think that just really allowed me to express myself.” Maher said.
Touching Maher’s incredible ability to captivate her audience on social media like no other rugby player has done to date, Meyer lauded her ability to bring fans closer to the action.
Explaining her reasoning for being so open about her journey, Maher put forward a powerful message about what the sport can do for athletes of different backgrounds.
“I think it’s been so fun to see, like, I mean, we had so many people tune in to our last games.
“You don’t even know what’s happening, you don’t know what a ruck is, nobody knows what a scrum is, but to see people tune in and see like, wow, this looks like a fun sport.”
Concluding her point with a rallying cry, Maher said, “It’s really awesome because we want to get people into sports because I know what it’s done for me and how it’s like, changed my body confidence, made me feel so good local college and try it out.”
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