Read our candid convo from the set of Summersalt’s Every Body is a Summersalt Body campaign shoot.
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This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Rugby player and registered nurse Ilona Maher shot to TikTok stardom during the 2021 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo thanks to her hilarious, unfiltered coverage of her stay at Olympic Village. “I was just being myself at the Olympics and I was just kind of saying what every Olympian was thinking in their head,” says Maher. But for the member of the USA women’s rugby team, the happy byproduct of her overnight fame is the spotlight for the sport she loves. “One of my main passions is growing the game of rugby, because I think rugby has the power to change lives,” says Maher. Watch a snippet of our interview from Summersalt’s Every Body is a Summersalt Body campaign shoot or read the entire conversation below.
Kristen Maxwell Cooper: What is your favorite warm weather vacation spot?
Ilona Maher: You know, it’s always funny because my family, we never went to, like, tropical destinations. My mom always had us going to museums and, like, historical landmarks. The amount of forts I’ve been to–insane. So I think my favorite spot is really anywhere when I’m with my family. And it could be, like, in Old Lyme, Connecticut, when we do a family reunion or wherever we happen to be together.
KMC: Are you a beach or pool person?
IM: Honestly, I’m a pool person because I am very scared of water. Riptides. Who knows what’s in there. So I’m a more pool person, but I’ll go to the beach to layout, get some sun.
KMC: Do you have a favorite summer drink?
IM: I don’t just drink them in the summer, but I can put away some margaritas. It can be cold out. It can be freezing and I’ll drink a margarita. But there’s something about it in the summertime that really makes it special.
KMC: Salt or no salt
IM: Of course, salt.
KMC: What is your no-fail secret to self-confidence?
IM: That’s so tough because sometimes I’m like, ‘how did I get so confident.’ I have a lot of confidence, but it hasn’t always been that way. From elementary school to middle school, even in high school, I could barely talk to people. Even in college, I had trouble even communicating. I was a little socially inept. But I think it was learning and then starting to realize that everybody else is uncomfortable. Everyone else feels weird. Everyone else feels stupid at times. So it’s like, we’re all feeling this way, but we all want to be confident and happy. So it’s kind of like, well, why don’t I just take the leap and do that? It’s also becoming okay with not everyone liking you or seeing eye to eye with you, which is very hard. I want to be liked constantly—I’m a people pleaser. But the confidence I’ve found being around the women I work with—I mean, my teammates are some of the most beautiful and strong women around. We all bring each other up and I have teammates who have such confidence that it kind of trickles into your own confidence.
One of my main passions is growing the game of rugby, because I think rugby has the power to change lives. It's changed my life...
- Ilona Maher
KMC: What does the term self love mean to you?
IM: I think it’s just doing things that make you happy. I think self-love for me isn’t just a linear path. It’s not like you find self love and you’re good. You’ve found it, and you can go on with your life. It’s a rollercoaster of a ride because not always do I love myself, not always do I love my body—it just kind of ebbs and flows and I think it’s gonna be that way for the rest of life. I’m not going to all of a sudden figure it out and then be happy. I’ve come to terms with that. You have bad days, you have good days. But it’s just knowing that it’s a journey and I think I’ve translated self-love also into appreciation.
KMC: When do you feel like your most authentic self?
IM: Definitely when I’m around my sisters. When I’m with my family, I can just be who I want to be. I can be sad. I can be awkward. I can be nervous. I just really feel like I can shed layers around them and become who I really am to the core. My teammates also make me feel that way. And when I’m on the rugby field—it feels like a place where I can really express myself and be who I am through the movement of my body or through a sport that I love so much.
KMC: Finish this sentence for me, ‘when I begin to feel self-doubt I…’
IM: Uh, when I begin to feel okay when I begin to feel self-doubt I literally just try to like take a moment and remember everything that my body does, who I am as a person. Uh, even the littlest things I think that’s helps me cuz like I don’t have to be perfect, but I do appreciate all the little things that I am and, but soft doubt, self doubt was always gonna be there. It’s just kind of figuring out like what can override it.
KMC: Tell us about becoming a viral sensation at the Tokyo Olympic Games?
IM: It was a wild time. It was super cool. I knew going into the Olympics, that social media is so powerful and it could do so much. And one of my main passions is growing the game of rugby, because I think rugby has the power to change lives. It’s changed my life and it’s turned me into the person I am today and I think it can do that for so many other people. It was just cool. To me, on TikTok, I was just being myself at the Olympics and I was just kind of saying what every Olympian was thinking in their head. Like I was like, ‘we’re all Olympians, there’s hot Olympians everywhere. We’re all thirsty after them, but no one’s saying it.’ And so I think that’s what really resonated with people is that they hold Olympians up on this pedestal and think of us as perfect and indestructible and ‘oh they’re Olympians,’ but we’re actually humans who are, you know, have fun, who also struggle with mental health, and who are funny, awkward. So it was just cool to see that through my rising as well, I think rugby was able to rise a little bit as well.
KMC: You’ve talked about how rugby actually helped you find body confidence. Can you talk a little bit about that?
IM: Yeah. I think rugby is one of these really cool sports that accepts all body types. If you look on a rugby fifteens field, there’s every body type represented. No matter how small you are, tall, big, skinny, everybody is welcomed there and there’s a spot for you. And I think that’s what really helped me because it gave me a place where I was like, ‘oh man, my body is so appreciated there.’ They’re like, ‘we want you to be as big, as powerful as possible.’ Whereas I think in some other sports there’s a certain body type they look for, or a certain speed or whatnot, but there’s so many different aspects of rugby that they need every body—the strongest, the fastest. And then also being able to test my limits on the field through physical activity—how fast I can run, how strong I can be—I think just shows you, ‘oh man, my body is powerful.’
KMC: When did you start playing rugby?
IM: It was my senior spring of high school and I was just like, I’d been a three sport athlete—I played field hockey, basketball, softball—and my senior spring, softball wasn’t jamming with me and I just wanted to try something else. So my dad said, ‘well you have to do something.’ And he was a rugby guy himself, so I went and I tried out rugby and it just immediately clicked in my first game. I made some tries, I made some tackles and it was like, ‘oh this is the sport for me.’ I just felt like it, my body was made for it.
KMC: Did you want to be a professional athlete growing up?
IM: I don’t think it was ever in my head because that’s not a track many women can go on. So you almost think it’s foolish to ever think you could be a professional athlete as a woman. There are so many routes for men to play professionally, but for women, it’s kind of a very risky move. So I never thought of it. I always thought maybe the Olympics would happen sometime. That could be cool. But I went into college and got my nursing degree and had just planned to do nursing and then hopefully go on to be a nurse practitioner or a doctor. But my senior year of college, I was like, ‘you know, I don’t think I’m done with this sport yet. I don’t think I’m done with seeing how far I can go with it.’ So I made it my mission my senior spring of college. I trained as hard as I could. I’m so proud about what I did when I was in college because I was a great student and then I trained to play for the USA team and then made the USA team.
KMC: You post videos on TikTok about the importance of self-talk and being kind to yourself. Tell me about that.
IM: I think it’s something I’m learning as well. I’ve recently just been doing a lot of negative talk to myself and I know it when I do it. I’ll say all these mean words that I would never say to anyone. I am someone who loves to uplift others. I love to give random compliments. I love to make people feel good. And so it’s just interesting that I love doing that for others, but for myself, I don’t give myself the time of day. So for me, it’s that the negative talk is going to be there, but it’s about recognizing it. And then I try to remind myself, ‘okay, you’re human. You’re allowed to make mistakes, try to carry on.’ And if the negative self-talk just keeps coming like that, I just repeat the same thing. And I try to talk to my best friend and my sisters about it. I think it’s great to have a sounding board, but I do think how you talk to yourself is very key.
KMC: If you could have a pool hang with anyone, who would you invite?
IM: Anyone? My team would be there for sure, but then I would definitely have Jennifer Lopez. I kind of brought that up at the Olympics. I did like an interview and they were like, ‘oh, who’s your celebrity crush?’ I was like, ‘I think it’s Jennifer Lopez because I love her so much.’ So I would definitely have Jennifer Lopez. Um, who else would I get in there? Um, she’s just the number one. Maybe Tom Hardy can come. We’ll have to see. Everyone’s invited honestly.
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