American rugby player Ilona Maher was one of Team USA’s breakout stars of the 2024 Paris Olympics — and with the 2028 summer games coming to Los Angeles, Maher is contemplating whether she wants to compete.
“I am going to try to,” the athlete, 28, told Kylie Kelce on the Thursday, June 12, episode of Kelce’s “Not Gonna Lie” podcast. “I think it would be so cool to play in a home olympics. That is my goal, but I am still in a phase of trying to figure out what my love of it is. Like, my ‘why’ for rugby because I feel very fulfilled after the Olympics, getting a medal and doing all that.”
The bronze medalist helped lead the United States to its first-ever women’s rugby medal last summer, and since then, she’s kept plenty busy — not just as an athlete, but as a social media influencer, model and even contestant on Dancing With the Stars. She finished second on season 33 alongside pro partner Alan Bersten.
“Playing while I still love it and not like it’s a chore, and also I still feel good, is what I’m battling now,” she continued. “I love doing this. I love doing the social media, the swim weeks and the shows, so I hope that I go back in a couple years and I’m like, ‘I can’t wait to work my ass off to put in the grind.’”
Maher, however, is aware that playing in the Olympics is about more than just sports.
“With the Olympics, this wasn’t just for myself,” she told Us Weekly exclusively in December 2024. “The Olympics was to get a medal for my team, to get a medal for our program so we could continue having a program so young girls could dream about being an Olympian and playing rugby in the U.S. So that’s pressure.”
Since coming home from Paris, Maher has embraced her platform as a role model, becoming an advocate for body image and inclusion on and off the field. Along with everything else she has going on, she revealed in May that she has also been working on writing a memoir since 2022.
“I was like, ‘I don’t have anything to write about,’” she told guest Mamrie Hart on an episode of her “House of Maher” podcast. “‘What am I gonna write about?’ And then one day, I opened up a Cutwater … I was at home and I just started typing and realized you have so much more to say than you realize sometimes.”
“There’s so many little fun stories to share,” she continued. “So it’s been really cool to write and cathartic, in a way.”
