Beast, beauty, brains. They are the three words hashtagged in the Instagram bio of Ilona Maher, the tagline around which she has built her brand. And what a brand it is. It is no overstatement to say that she is now the world’s best known rugby player – even if a large portion of her 5.2m followers may never have watched the sport in which she plies her primary trade.
The last 12 months have seen the 29-year-old from the sleepy city of Burlington in Vermont catapulted to superstardom. Already a TikTok darling, Maher’s behind-the-scenes insights and personality at Paris 2024 exploded; an appearance on Dancing with the Stars and on the cover of Sports Illustrated saw her profile grow again. Maher has already batted away offers from WWE and is eyeing a move into Hollywood. In the United States, Maher has entered an upper echelon of sporting superstars, as confirmed at the ESPY Awards last month when she was named Best Breakthrough Athlete of the year, following in the footsteps of Tom Brady and LeBron James. One of rugby’s greatest selling points has always been that nobody is bigger than the game; Maher just might be.
