Olympics fans were fired up after Ilona Maher’s devastating stiff arm in U.S. women’s rugby sevens win vs. Japan

The U.S women’s rugby sevens team started off its Olympic Games in Paris with a dominant 36-7 win against Japan. And it was clear that Ilona Maher — an absolute star on TikTok , by the way — set the tone early for Team USA.

She channeled her inner Beast Mode in the process.

After Japan went up 7-0, it was all U.S. the rest of the way. And in the first half, Maher got the ball with some space and on her first carry of the match, the Burlington, Vt., native leveled a helpless Japanese defender and showed off the speed as she cruised past the try-line for the score.

But seriously, it was all about that stiff arm.

Derrick Henry would be proud about that one . It had U.S. fans fired up as well.

This was how Twitter/X reacted

More Olympics!