How Team USA Rugby Star Ilona Maher Stays Strong

In the event you’ve come throughout 27-year-old Group USA Rugby star Ilona Maher’s TikTok movies, you know the way charming she could be. Contemplating her web page has over 1.1 million followers and 87.7 million likes, there is a good probability you have come throughout a video or two when you’re on the platform. In reality, once I shared that I would lately interviewed Maher to a good friend, she gushed: I like her TikToks. 

“If you wish to make a profession out of rugby or if you wish to make sufficient cash as an expert athlete in rugby, you need to have a social media presence. I deal with it as a second job, if not proper up there with my first job of being an athlete. As a result of on the spot we’re as a sport and a girls’s sport, I am not going to get an excessive amount of of a livable earnings with simply rugby,” she instructed me about why she’s made social media a precedence.

Ilona Maher: I do not really feel unhealthy about consuming. I have been coaching my thoughts and coaching myself to [get to that mindset]. Even being an expert athlete—however I believe all girls expertise this—we cope with consuming and our our bodies. For me, it has been actually liberating to study what meals it takes to be at my high efficiency. The meals really feel good once I know I would like this meals to gasoline myself. 

I am extra about operate versus kind. As a result of proper now I am speculated to be large. I am speculated to be highly effective. And I am utilizing these meals to do it. 

However my favourite meals should be those that my mother makes. It is homey. It is what I grew up on. It is what sort of made me into the athlete I’m immediately. 

Maher: It is fascinating as a result of I attempt to not let rugby management my thoughts the entire time. When persons are like, “Oh, how do you do social media with the rugby?” Nevertheless it’s truly about discovering that stability as a result of if I used to be serious about rugby on a regular basis, it might be loads. I believe generally it may be a pleasant escape. 

However to get into the sport, earlier than it begins, I do should amp myself up. It is such a tough sport. I really feel so drained always. I am getting beat up on the market. And we play in these scorching locations.

I say to myself earlier than I am about to expire, “If it had been straightforward, all people would do it. This can be a very arduous sport, and I am so honored that I can do it.” It sort of places it into perspective once I’m drained. 

Maher: I do not know if that is actually intense, however warmth coaching. We play in such scorching environments generally—like Singapore; Hong Kong; Perth, Australia, throughout warmth waves, and as excessive as 114 levels—so we get into warmth acclimation. Getting ready your self to have the ability to carry out in that atmosphere begins again house. So even now I do warmth acclimation simply to arrange myself for summer season in Paris. 

Maher: That is been one thing I’ve undoubtedly been studying, like always. It by no means will get simpler, however you learn to cope with it higher in a means. Within the final Olympics, we misplaced, and that was very arduous, however I have been studying the right way to play it to my benefit.

After we lose, one factor I concentrate on is connecting with my teammates.

As a result of quite a lot of occasions folks put issues on themselves like, “Oh, I knocked that ball on,” or “I missed that sort out that led to [the loss].” It is vital to keep in mind that nobody second loses a sport for us. We’ve so many moments all through a sport, and it is by no means that one second. Like, yeah, perhaps somebody missed that sort out, however what about earlier within the sport once I missed it? 

Maher: I believe what’s enjoyable about being on a group is having these completely different personalities round you. You want the individual who’s going to go quiet and needs to get of their head earlier than a sport. Or myself earlier than a sport, I am loud, I need to dance, and I need to join with folks. So it is vital to acknowledge there are such a lot of completely different teammates and personalities that make up a group—and that is what makes a group particular. You don’t need all the identical athletes on the market. 

Being a great teammate can also be about serving to others stand up as properly. For instance, what I have been making an attempt to do on social media has been for myself, nevertheless it’s additionally been for my teammates. I attempt to convey them into any video I can or encourage them to submit. 

Maher: I’ve nearly needed to discover a stability. If you wish to make a profession out of rugby or if you wish to make sufficient cash as an expert athlete in rugby, you need to have a social media presence. I deal with it as a second job, if not proper up there with my first job of being an athlete. As a result of on the spot we’re as a sport and a girls’s sport, I am not going to get an excessive amount of of a livable earnings with simply rugby. 

I do receives a commission for rugby, and it is superb that I’ve that chance for me within the U.S. However all of us need to make more cash, and all of us need to get sponsored. And after the [Tokyo] Olympics, I spotted, Oh that is how I can do this. I’ve to make use of this software to my benefit. 

My teammates and I discuss this on a regular basis, “I need to make more cash,” or “I need to get sponsors,” and the factor is: It’s a must to submit. It is a very weak state, however you need to put your self on the market. It is scary generally, however I view it as That is how I make this profession sustainable. 

Maher: Nicely, I believe the very first thing is that rugby is simply a males’s sport—that it’s so bodily, it isn’t meant for ladies and you need to be a person to play it. And to play rugby as a girl, there’s this concept that you need to nearly reject your femininity and go on the market and be a masculine model of your self.

And for lots of sports activities, that stops women from enjoying. As a result of they’re going to assume, I do not need folks to consider me this manner or I do not need to danger my femininity or how lovely I really feel. 

These misconceptions cease folks from enjoying sports activities. They cease folks from actually understanding what their physique’s able to. Sports activities give your physique a goal that is not simply to be checked out and objectified. I believe sports activities provide you with an appreciation to your physique. 

I believe for me, being that rugby athlete within the limelight, I need to present that I could be this very large, highly effective individual, however I can even put on lipstick on the sphere to indicate that you would be able to convey your femininity on the sphere too. I do know that in our seventh circuit now, we’ve got quite a lot of women who placed on a full face of make-up and who need to go on the market and be fairly. I like that as a result of I do not assume you need to sacrifice that to play this historically very “manly” sport. 

Maher: I have been utilizing Medalist, which is a brand new model that is by athletes for athletes. We have been testing out the merchandise—like No Fric Stick Anti Chafe + Cooling Balm—which I exploit on and off the sphere. It has been actually useful for my pregame, pre-practice, and after-practice routine.