Ilona Maher: Give your body grace, says rugby star

Rugby participant Ilona Maher has received followers and admirers together with her sporting expertise.

But it surely’s her message of physique positivity that is attracted thousands and thousands of followers on social media.

The US-born athlete, 28, usually jumps on TikTok and Instagram to speak about physique positivity and being a high-profile girl in sport.

Because the Paris Olympics, she’s change into one of many largest rugby gamers on the earth, and there are hopes that her current transfer to UK aspect Bristol Bears might increase the game’s profile.

Regardless that she solely performed for 20 minutes as an alternative, her debut match final weekend drew a document crowd for the workforce, which relocated the fixture to an even bigger venue.

The star hung round after the sport for greater than 90 minutes to pose for photos and discuss to followers.

Chatting with PJ Newsbeat after her debut match final weekend, Ilona says she’s “honoured” to be a task mannequin for younger girls and women.

“My message to [girls] can be to be sure to give your self grace and are light together with your physique,” she says.

“There are going to be days the place it is powerful to find it irresistible on a regular basis however give it grace and do issues, whether or not it is dance, rugby or taking a stroll, to point out what it is in a position to do for you.”

Aspiring gamers Zara and Millie, who turned as much as watch the sport, inform Newsbeat Ilona helped them to understand: “Simply since you play a sport, it does not outline how one can be as an individual.”

“Ilona’s modified the notion of physique picture by displaying that you may be muscly and robust and highly effective and put on a costume,” says 16-year-old Zara.

“Simply since you play a sport it does not outline how one can be as an individual – how it’s a must to look, how it’s a must to act.

“I do know a variety of younger women wrestle with that.”

Zara and team-mate Millie, additionally 16, play for North Bristol Rugby Membership.

They each needed to transfer to Bristol after they turned 12 with the intention to continute taking part in as a result of lack of extra native women’ groups.

“I have been taking part in rugby since I used to be about six and I used to play with the boys up till I used to be U12s which is the age restrict that you just’re not allowed to play with them anymore,” says Zara.

An athletic physique is “at all times seen as a masculine factor”, provides Millie.

“[Ilona’s] a task mannequin for me as a result of I am fairly tall and she or he’s additionally tall and she or he simply reveals the wonder in that and she or he’s not ashamed of it.”

For rugby union journalist and writer Jessica Hayden, Ilona’s message of physique positivity is breaking down a big barrier within the girls’s sport.

“Half of the problem is that they do not have the chance and that golf equipment do not have girls’s or women choices for them,” she tells Newsbeat.

“The opposite half of the problem is that, after they get to that age, there’s issues round physique positivity.”

And whereas there have been campaigns up to now to advertise physique confidence, what makes Ilona minimize by way of is her authenticity, Jessica says.

“Personalities are an important factor in sport as a result of folks need to perceive who this athlete is,” she says.

“What I actually favored was seeing younger women speaking to her [after her debut] about what Ilona’s completed for them by way of how they view their very own our bodies.

“And I am certain these conversations are occurring up and down the nation about what she’s doing for the game.”

Workforce-mates Millie and Zara say they’re excited to see the increase they assume Ilona’s already bringing to the ladies’s sport.

A record-breaking crowd of 9,240 turned out to look at Ilona’s Premiership Ladies’s Rugby debut because the Bristol Bears took on rivals Gloucester-Hartpury.

The determine is greater than double the Bears’ earlier document attendance of 4,101- to not point out a brand new Premiership Ladies’s Rugby document for a standalone sport.

“She’s had a large impact,” says Zara.

“They won’t play rugby, they may not ever have watched a rugby match, however as a result of they comply with her on Instagram and TikTok, they need to come and watch her.”

Jessica was additionally within the crowd and says she’s “by no means seen something prefer it”.

“In case you have all these followers who turned as much as see Ilona Maher, they could change into Bristol Bears followers after which come again the subsequent week and the week after that,” she says.

Ilona’s signed to Bristol on a 3 month deal and Millie says it is “a very good alternative to create extra of a platform for girls’s rugby”.

Jessica is optimistic that may occur, significantly with the Ladies’s Rugby World Cup being hosted in England this yr and plans to boost female participation within the sport.

“We might be having our Lionesses second,” Jessica says, referring to the success of England’s girls’s soccer workforce.

“The eye [Ilona]’s drawing it proper now can solely be factor for the broader sport.

“Now’s the time to spend money on girls’s rugby – it is solely going to get greater.”

After approaching for 20 minutes, the Bristol Bears ultimately misplaced to rivals Gloucester-Hartpury 17-40 and Ilona instructed Newsbeat she’s “prepared for extra”.

“I really feel glad, however hungry’s the phrase – I am able to do extra.”

Hearken to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays – or pay attention again here.