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- On September 17, Olympian Ilona Maher is making her debut on Dancing With the Stars.
- She opened up to Women’s Health about growing up playing a "masculine" sport like rugby.
- Ilona wants to normalize different body types.
Tonight, Olympic rugby star Ilona Maher will make her Dancing With the Stars debut, performing a cha cha to Shania Twain’s "Man! I Feel Like A Woman!" But for the 28-year-old, this dance means more than most.
Since the official cast has been announced, Ilona has opened up about wanting to "show what my body type can do, and how beautiful it can be in all sorts of spaces." It’s a similar sentiment to the one she shared with Women’s Health before the Olympics, when she discussed why she enjoys her sport in the first place. (Ilona is the first rugby player to compete for the Mirrorball Trophy.)
"Rugby requires a certain human and a certain sort of personality. For women especially, it’s a person who is prepared to break societal norms, in a way, and play a sport that is generally thought of as masculine, manly, and too physical for women," she says. "These are girls who said, ‘No, flip that. I am just as strong. I’m just as powerful.’"
Over the summer, Ilona helped lead Team USA to their first rugby medal in 100 years. The ladies used a "high woman philosophy" to inspire them, telling Women’s Health that they were playing for the women "before and after us."
Ilona takes the same energy onto her social media accounts, which boast millions of followers. On TikTok especially, she’s a big proponent of body positivity—and even if it gets "repetitive," Ilona says that she’ll never stop normalizing bigger body types.
"It’s just important for these girls to see me constantly out there showing that being big can be beautiful, and it doesn’t take away from your femininity in a way," she says. "Growing up, I had no athletes—except for Serena Williams—who looked like me and played a sport like me. I want to be somebody out there [so girls] don’t feel like they need to change."
Before she joined rugby, the Vermont native said she was thought of as a "big girl." But upon making a local rugby club at another high school, Ilona was "celebrated" for her body instead of ostracized for it.
Now, she’s hoping to show that she’s not only graceful on the pitch, but on the dance floor, too. She’s partnered with Alan Bersten, who took home first place with Bachelorette alum Hannah Brown in 2019.
"All body types can dance and express themselves out there through dance," Ilona told Good Morning America ahead of the cast announcement. "I don’t think you’ll see a lot of my body types doing the tango, or the rumba, or the cha cha… seeing my body type move in that sort of way just shows that all sorts of body types can do so many different things."
