For those who don’t follow rugby sevens, Ilona Maher shouldn’t really be a well-known name. But America’s rugby star just keeps getting bigger and bigger. In the Olympics it was bronze, but on Instagram it has become gold, and rightly so. In just a few days, she increased the number of followers by well over a million, and it only continued to increase. After she finished in the Olympics, the number had increased by over two and a half million. POPULAR: Maher has gained millions of followers. Even before the Olympics, she had around 700,000. Photo: Martine Sørhus / news – For those of us who know her, Ilona is the natural focal point of the party. She has an ability to bring out the energy of everyone on the team, says number 9 on the team Alena Olsen to news. But even if much of the content is humour, and the following is large today, she has struggled a lot with ugly comments about her body. – Will be called man – As you can probably see, I have cried a little. I always get these comments, but lately it has become a lot. I get comments where I am called a man and masculine and am asked if I am on steroids. There will always be negative people out there, and they put women in a box. They think women should be fragile and small (petite) and quiet. But that’s not how it is, she told her followers in tears at the end of 2022. – Women can be strong, they can have broad shoulders, and they can take up space and they can be big. KNOWN: Maher is the most followed female rugby player in the world. Photo: Andrew Kelly / Reuters Many of her posts during the Olympics have been about this very thing, but now she publishes posts with a lot of humor. For example, when one person tried to make a point that it looked like she had a BMI of 30. – I think you were trying to tease me, but this is actually a fact – I have a BMI of 30. Well, 29 .3 to be more precise. I am actually considered overweight. But well, I’m going to the Olympics, and you’re not going to, she replied. – 2 million will come and take you BRONZE: Maher smiled from ear to ear after the team won the bronze medal in rugby sevens. Photo: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi / AP And ugly comments still appear in 2024. But now it has become different. – I used to get these comments all the time, people were mean, called me manly or whatever, she told CNN. – But now I have 2 million friends who will come after you and catch you if you try to say something bad to me. But when she is told to ignore the hateful comments, she responds anyway. – As long as people comment on stupid things, I will continue to fight back and stand up for myself. And besides, my fans love it, she wrote on Instagram. – Strong influence Teammate and roommate in the Olympics, Sarah Levy, thinks it is very important that Maher responds to hateful comments in the way she does. – It is very important. You never know who will get her message, so if she can reach as many people as she can, it’s only positive. Whatever she’s doing, she just has to get on with it, says Levy to news. TEAM FRIEND: Sarah Levy. Photo: Dylan Martinez / Reuters She describes Maher as someone who always lifts others up and offers himself. Both Levy and other teammates thus benefit greatly from being on the team with the new star. – I think that is why so many people can relate to her and are so happy with her, because they feel inspired by her. You notice that she has a strong influence, says teammate Alena Olsen to news. Norwegian athletes also think it is important that the topic is brought up to date in the Olympics. – It is a very important topic. It is important that people talk about it and that one has good, healthy examples of it. Maybe I’m lucky to be in an environment where it’s very safe and good to talk about things like that, but maybe many others aren’t, and then it helps to have Olympic athletes who are good examples of those things, says the Norwegian triathlete Solveig Løvseth to news. Weightlifter Solfrid Koanda thinks Maher is “raw cool”. – We are in an Olympics and then we have to sit and think about how we look. It would have been very strange if I had looked like a gymnast and was going out to lift lots of weights. So we will look different. That is the essence of the Olympic village, says Solfrid Koanda. The weightlifter continued: – You see tall people. You see short girls. There is such a large scale of bodies. Why should a strong girl be so much different from anything else? I think it’s cool that we can gather here and be different and show that we are good at different things, says Koanda. Check out this celebration: Wild cheers after overtime scoring 01:00 Watch the dramatic final seconds 00:53 LeBron James showed support 00:23 Watch the wild scoring – photos from Max 00:34 Show more Published 11.08.2024, at 12.26
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Rugby player Ilona Maher has gained over 2 million followers during the Olympics in Paris – Olympics Paris 2024
