Meet Ilona Maher, viral US rugby star who led team to shocking Olympic bronze medal

Ilona Maher is having her moment and getting her Olympics hardware.

The U.S. women’s rugby sevens star helped the team to a stunning bronze win over Australia on Tuesday, the first time the squad had won a medal of any kind at the Olympics.

Maher, who has become a social media sensation thanks to her Viral TikTok videos, has been integral for Team USA this Olympics, scoring in the first two contests of the 2024 Summer Games.

“I wanted to be good at social media — and I do a lot of social media — but also be a very good rugby player,” she said, according to the Associated Press . “And that was important to me.”

“It was important for me to show I am funny but I’m also the real deal and I also [am] a very good rugby player,” she said. “And so it was important for me to show that you can be anything. You can be beast, beauty, brains.”

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The Post takes a closer look at Maher, her background and what’s led to her becoming a star on and off the pitch.

Maher, 27, was born in Vermont — to a father who played Rugby at Saint Michael’s College — and became a multi-sport star (field hockey, basketball and softball) at Burlington High School before joining Norwich University, helping the school win an American College Rugby Association sevens national championship.

She transferred to Quinnipiac University for her sophomore year and blossomed into a three-time All-American center.

After recording 23 tries during her senior season, she won the MA Sorensen Award as the nation’s top women’s rugby player.

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In 2018, Maher competed with Team USA sevens squad at the SVNS world tournament in Paris before playing in Tokyo in the Summer Olympics in 2021.

In her first Olympics, she quickly made a name for herself for her impressive combination of strength and speed, using a powerful stiff-arm to knock off opponents.

She did more of the same this time in France, showing off her full plate of skills on a score for the Americans against Japan, going on a run that many on social media called “beast mode,” in a nod to former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch.

Alex Sedrick, whose magical run and conversion helped the U.S. beat Australia for the bronze medal, said she was trying to take a page from Maher’s book.

“Trying to channel my big girls,” Sedrick said, according to the AP . “Ilona Maher. I’m just trying to be like her.”

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Maher boasts 1.9 million followers on Instagram and another 1.8 million on TikTok.

In 2021, she gave fans an inside look at the Tokyo Olympic Village , including the infamous cardboard beds.

She’s done more of the same this summer, posting a blend of humorous videos — including about attempting to date in Paris and also meeting Snoop Dogg.

Maher even clapped back at a critic who had made a comment about her weight.

Most recently, she posted some photos to her Instagram story after medaling.

“Kissies for bronze,” she wrote with a photo of her medal.

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