How Team USA Rugby Star Ilona Maher Stays Strong

When you’ve come throughout 27-year-old Crew USA Rugby star Ilona Maher‘s TikTok videos, you know the way charming she may be. Contemplating her web page has over 1.1 million followers and 87.7 million likes, there is a good likelihood you’ve got come throughout a video or two if you happen to’re on the platform. The truth is, after I shared that I might just lately interviewed Maher to a buddy, 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 knowledgeable athlete in rugby, you must 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 revenue with simply rugby,” she informed me about why she’s made social media a precedence.

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

I am extra about perform versus type. As a result of proper now I am presupposed to be huge. I am presupposed to be highly effective. And I am utilizing these meals to do it. 

However my favourite meals need to 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 at this time. 

Maher: It is attention-grabbing as a result of I strive to not let rugby management my thoughts the entire time. When persons are like, “Oh, how do you do social media with the rugby?” But it surely’s truly about discovering that stability as a result of if I used to be serious about rugby on a regular basis, it will be rather a lot. I believe typically it may be a pleasant escape. 

However to get into the sport, earlier than it begins, I do need to 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 sizzling locations.

I say to myself earlier than I am about to expire, “If it have been simple, all people would do it. This can be a very exhausting sport, and I am so honored that I can do it.” It type of places it into perspective after I’m drained. 

Maher: I do not know if that is actually intense, however warmth coaching. We play in such sizzling environments typically—like Singapore; Hong Kong; Perth, Australia, throughout warmth waves, and as excessive as 114 levels—so we get into warmth acclimation. Making ready your self to have the ability to carry out in that setting begins again residence. So even now I do warmth acclimation simply to arrange myself for summer time 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 method. Within the final Olympics, we misplaced, and that was very exhausting, however I have been studying the way to play it to my benefit.

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

As a result of numerous instances individuals put issues on themselves like, “Oh, I knocked that ball on,” or “I missed that deal with that led to [the loss].” It is essential to keep in mind that nobody second loses a recreation for us. We now have so many moments all through a recreation, and it is by no means that one second. Like, yeah, possibly somebody missed that deal with, however what about earlier within the recreation after I missed it? 

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

Being a superb teammate can also be about serving to others stand up as nicely. For instance, what I have been attempting to do on social media has been for myself, however it’s additionally been for my teammates. I attempt to deliver them into any video I can or encourage them to publish. 

Maher: I’ve virtually had to discover a stability. If you wish to make a profession out of rugby or if you wish to make sufficient cash as knowledgeable athlete in rugby, you must 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 revenue with simply rugby. 

I do receives a commission for rugby, and it is wonderful that I’ve that risk for me within the U.S. However all of us need to earn more money, and all of us wish 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 device to my benefit. 

My teammates and I speak about this on a regular basis, “I need to earn more money,” or “I wish to get sponsors,” and the factor is: You must publish. It is a very susceptible state, however you must put your self on the market. It is scary typically, however I view it as That is how I make this profession sustainable. 

Maher: Effectively, I believe the very first thing is that rugby is just a males’s sport—that it’s so bodily, it isn’t meant for ladies and you must be a person to play it. And to play rugby as a girl, there’s this concept that you must virtually 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 taking part in. As a result of they’re going to assume, I do not need individuals to think about me this fashion or I do not wish to threat my femininity or how stunning I really feel. 

These misconceptions cease individuals from taking part in sports activities. They cease individuals from actually understanding what their physique’s able to. Sports activities give your physique a function that is not simply to be checked out and objectified. I believe sports activities offer you an appreciation to your physique. 

I believe for me, being that rugby athlete within the limelight, I wish to present that I may be this very huge, highly effective individual, however I may put on lipstick on the sector to indicate that you may deliver your femininity on the sector too. I do know that in our seventh circuit now, we’ve got numerous women who placed on a full face of make-up and who wish to go on the market and be fairly. I like that as a result of I do not assume you must 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 take advantage of on and off the sector. It has been actually useful for my pregame, pre-practice, and after-practice routine.

Maher: It is humorous, earlier than practices, we’ll play enjoyable video games. It is actually grown girls—you already know, some in our late 20s or 30s—taking part in tag with one another. We’re laughing and guffawing. I made a joke that my buddy simply bought married and acquired a home, however I am right here taking part in tag with my buddies within the solar. However that brings me again to love why I adore it.