Ilona Maher rose to stardom during the Tokyo Olympics when her big hits caught eyes on the field and her behind-the-scenes TikToks captivated fans off the pitch. Entering the Paris Games, she planned to provide the same quirky content that she did in Tokyo, with the purpose of causing a ruckus. 

This time, her team's play and the social media views soared to new heights.

The U.S. women earned a bronze medal by defeating sevens powerhouse Australia on a last-second try and conversion. After the match, Maher further endeared herself to followers by declaring through tears: "We say in rugby a lot that we want to pass the jersey (to the next generation) … I think today we really made the jersey better so that other young girls can grow up wanting to play rugby."

Entering the Games, Maher had 628,000 followers on Instagram. The morning after the U.S. women’s rugby team won bronze, she had 2.1 million followers. For the stiff-arming star, it wasn’t about trying to be trendy. She wanted to help raise the profile of the sport, especially women’s rugby, and be a voice for body positivity. 

"It is really important to have a profile, and a profile for our sport. It’s about building the brand. We are female rugby players — we’re not getting million-dollar contracts, we’re not getting paid the money that we should be."

Before the Games, Maher gained attention for calling out those criticizing her body type. She clapped back at a critic in early July, which resurfaced recently: “I do have a BMI of 30 and I’m considered overweight but alas, I’m going to the Olympics and you’re not.” 

It was the unapologetic honesty that followers connected with, even before she stepped foot on the pitch at the 2024 Games. 

Once in Paris, she delivered a powerful message to her followers before the Opening Ceremony that every body deserves to be celebrated and the Olympics would feature many body types. 

“All body types matter, all body types are worthy… All body types are beautiful and can do amazing things so truly see yourself in these athletes and know you can do it too.”

During the Games she became the most followed rugby player ever — man or woman — even moreso than rugby union stars like Australia’s Siya Kolisi and France’s Antoine Dupont.

It wasn’t just serious messages that gained Maher followers. She knows how to appeal to the next generation of rugby players and potential fans. She utilizes TikTok’s trending audio while capitalizing on cultural hits like "Love Island".

After the United States’ 36-7 win over Japan, Maher answered her critics, some of whom whined that she was too focused on social media and not focused enough on rugby.

“Me and my friends are keen on getting the sport out there and getting us noticed. It’s important in the US where so much attention is on other sports,” before she added, “And I think it’s just about showing the personality that the women have.”

The game is very strong, not just for men, but for women too.

Maher’s attention on social media was only just starting to take off. Her posts full of personality were starting to gain traction, but the stars aligned when she delivered a beastly stiff arm that caught the eyes of sports fans everywhere.

Like any good brand manager, she used all the resources available to her to reach new audiences. NFL star Jason Kelce’s presence at the Games provided an opportunity for a new ‘superfan’ to be declared, add in an arm wrestle and the amplification only gets louder. 

“Hopefully, he can see that rugby sevens is not so different to football and he can bring a bit of attention to it in America.”

Maher realizes that the additional followers bring higher stakes. 

"I’m really excited, but then you get into it where there's now more eyes watching and that is a very stressful, kind of scary thing at times," the rugby social media queen told NBCOlympics.com the day after winning the bronze medal. "And I know that's what really scared me. Even just playing as you're playing for all these people who now are watching and want to. So that could have pulled me away from it, but I just wanted to play well."

World Rugby chief executive Alan Gilpin spoke to the importance of athletes like Maher within the sport and how they can help grow the game while balancing the team-first tradition in rugby.

“We don’t want to lose any of rugby’s values which underpin the game. It is the ultimate team sport, but it’s OK to have stars too. We know the younger audiences we’re going after follow stars. Ilona Maher is the best example of that. I think she’s added 300,000 Instagram followers even in the last 48 hours just from what she’s doing out there. She works hard at it and is really good at it.”

Gilpin added, “We’ve got to, in the first instance, give people permission within rugby to be stars and not have the barriers we’ve maybe had in the past and, secondly, we’ve got to help them.”

Maher’s teammates support her too, they were quick to come to her defense when she was asked about her new social media following. 

Sammy Sullivan, newcomer to the Olympics and a Captain in the U.S. Army, made sure to emphasize: “I think one thing about [Ilona] that people should definitely understand is yeah, she's famous on social media and she does all of these TikToks and reels, but when she's with us, when she's with the girls, when we're playing, she's completely with us.

She's with our team, she's in that moment, and yeah, she's the queen of doing the best of both. Like John Green freaking said it, she's the Nobel Prize of social media and rugby.”

Co-captain Naya Tapper chimed in, “She’s also creating social media protégés,” which caused the group to laugh. 

Maher quickly refocused, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, all the girls, I'm trying to get all the girls to post way more reels now, we got influencers now on the team.”

While a lighthearted back-and-forth, more 'influencers' circle back to the initial purpose of Maher’s TikTok’s in Tokyo — the more teammates posting, the greater the visibility of the sport.

Alex ‘Spiff’ Sedrick, who scored the game-winning try and conversion, has seen her own profile rise since the win. She spoke to the position that Maher has put herself in by providing so much transparency as a pro athlete.

"To have someone as courageous as her to put it out there and show exactly what she wants and really open herself up to being seen by so many people," Sedrick said. "That comes with a lot of support, but it can also come with some negativity unfortunately as well."

She added that Maher’s social media profile hasn’t taken away from her focus on the field. 

“I think she just handles it so well and she just does her job exactly as she should whether she has two million followers or one million followers. It doesn't change anything — any of her actions on the fields — and we need that in a teammate.”

For Maher, she hopes all the support and visibility from the 2024 Games will mean she won't have to hear things like, "Wait a minute, women play rugby?" and, "We have a women’s sevens team?" anymore. 

It's clear, both from the performance and makeup of the U.S. women's rugby team, and the response they have received from their nation, that women's rugby is a sport worth investing in. Maher is among the many who hope that stronger funding will follow. 

Ultimately, Maher is “really, really, really proud of the eyes that we're getting, because we put in a lot of work and a lot of sacrifice for this.”

Her teammate Tapper chimed in with the exclamation point: "We deserve it."

Maher’s plan is working; the profile and visibility of women’s rugby is at an all-time high.

Short-term wins include converting superfans like Kelce and Falvor Flav, who have high profiles and untapped audiences that they can expose to rugby. Michelle Obama even posted about the win.

Longterm wins come in the form of media attention and sponsorship. Businesswoman Michele Kang made headlines after the team’s bronze medal win when USA Rugby announced the businesswoman would be making an unprecedented $4 million dollar donation to the sport. Kang is known for her investment in women’s sports — she is an owner of the Washington Spirt, Olympique Lyonnais Feminin and London City Lionesses women’s soccer clubs. 

“2024 has been a banner year for women’s sports with record-breaking attendance and viewership, and women’s rugby is no exception,” said Kang, founder of Kynisca Sports International. “This Eagles team, led by players like Ilona Maher and co-captains Lauren Doyle and Naya Tapper, has captivated millions of new fans, bringing unprecedented attention to the sport. I am so happy to support these outstanding athletes to realize their dream in capturing the gold in Los Angeles in 2028. That work starts now. As corporate sponsors and broadcast networks increasingly see the value and enthusiasm for women’s sports, now is the moment to unlock the full potential of these incredible female athletes and inspire generations to come.”

The women will look to improve upon their bronze medal as the host nation of the LA 2028 Games. The win couldn’t have come at a more perfect time as rugby explodes at the amateur level in the U.S. More than 100,000 USA Rugby (the governing body of rugby) members play in over 2,500 clubs nationwide with college and high school-age players comprising nearly half of the community. 

After the 2028 Games, the United States was named the host nation of the 2031 Men’s Rugby World Cup and the 2033 Women’s Rugby World Cup. Hosting the World Cup in rugby is the ultimate acknowledgement that rugby has arrived in the U.S. and is here to stay. It’s the first time that a men’s Rugby World Cup will be held in North or South America, an honor normally reserved for powerhouse nations like France (2023) or Australia (2027).

For Maher, she just needs to keep unapologetically being herself, embrace being the face of USA Rugby, and bring the sport to new heights on the pitch and on the screens.