Team USA Rugby Player Ilona Maher Promotes Body Positivity, Goes Viral

Ilona Maher promised that her viral online presence is exactly “how [she is] in real life”—a person who can eat a giant croissant after winning bronze for Team USA in women’s rugby sevens just as much as she can calmly shut down haters online who try to body shame.

“I bet that person has a 30% BMI,” wrote one commenter—who has since deleted their account—on one of Maher’s TikTok videos, which prompted the Olympian to film a response.

“Hi, thank you for this comment. I think you were trying to roast me, but this is actually a fact. I do have a BMI of 30. Well, 29.3 to be exact,” Maher began in her video, which has been viewed more than 7.7 million times and liked more than 1 million times.

@ilonamaher

As long as haters keep saying dumb stuff, I’m gonna keep clapping back

♬ original sound – Ilona Maher

Maher continued, “I’ve been considered overweight my whole life,” sharing that she’d been labeled as overweight from elementary school into high school.

“I remember vividly in high school, one time, I had to turn a physical into the office, and right at the bottom of the page it said overweight, and I was so embarrassed to turn that in and have that written there,” she said. “My whole life I’ve been this way.”

@ilonamaher

When in Paris@Olympics @paris2024

♬ original sound – Ilona Maher

She also mentioned discussing her BMI with dieticians, stating, “because [she goes] off facts,” and explaining, “how it’s really not helpful for athletes.” BMI—short for Body Mass Index—is a formula where a person’s weight (in kilograms) is divided by the square of their height (in meters). The resulting number is used to sort people into four categories: underweight, healthy, overweight, or obese.

Every NFL team should be watching Ilona Maher game film in training camp right now.

That’s how you establish the run. @USARugby pic.twitter.com/mPGVRxVKZx

— Jeff Eisenband (@JeffEisenband) July 30, 2024

It’s also historically flawed—and as Maher pointed out, not a true indicator of someone’s ability.

“I’m 5 feet 10 inches and 200 pounds. And I have about—and this is an estimate—but about 170 pounds of lean mass on me,” she said. “That BMI doesn’t really tell you what I can do … how fit I am. It’s just a couple of numbers put together, doesn’t tell you how much muscle I have or anything like that.”

The powerful Olympian has since shut down that hater, as well as many others who think they can bring down the athlete with a medal to boot, with her trademark red lipstick and a killer right arm that easily sweeps her opponents out of her way.

On Tuesday, the U.S. women’s rugby sevens team shocked Australia to win the bronze medal, USA’s first medal ever in the sport.

After the match, the 27-year-old Vermont native, who has both a nursing degree and a master’s in business, had a tear-filled interview, mentioning she wants to play rugby and promote the sport to girls across the world.

“I think the stereotype around a rugby player is this idea that you need to drop your femininity and play a very masculine, brutal sport,” Maher said Wednesday. “Myself and my team, and some others on the circuit like Australia and Ireland, are showing that femininity. We are doing our makeup before games, wearing makeup, wanting to feel pretty out there.”