Ilona Maher poses in black bikini as she soaks up the sun on the pool side

Ilona Maher recently gave her fans a sneak peek into her time off from training. Maher was last seen competing for the national team at the Women's Rugby World Cup in England. The American rugby player rose to fame during the Paris Olympics after she started creating content on her experiences and body positivity.

At the Games, she bagged a bronze medal in the women's rugby sevens event. Following the feat, Maher started navigating a fun-filled schedule of media appearances, sponsorships, and professional rugby. Maher appeared on the Dancing with the Stars show in November 2024, along with her professional dance partner Alan Bersten. The pair finished in second place. Gaining fame after making content on body image, athletes' lives, and rugby experiences, the American player was featured on the digital cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit's September 2024 issue.

In the early months of 2025, she signed a three-month deal with the Bristol Bears, the team competing in the English Premiership Women's Rugby. The club competed in its first game at the Ashton Gate stadium, where the record for the club's attendance was broken. While the previous record was 4,101 fans, 9,240 spectators attended the Bristol Bears' first game. At one of the instances amid her break from the sport, she was seen embracing the offseason by a pool, where she wore a black bikini. She layered the outfit with a black shirt and an Olympic pendant neckpiece.

Her appearance at Bristol Bears was a shift from the seven-player format to 15.

Ilona Maher makes her feelings known about being popular for her content creator role over her rugby skills

Ilona Maher at the Women's Rugby World Cup 2025 in York, England. (Photo by Getty Images)

Ilona Maher has approximately five million followers on Instagram. In an interview with The Telegraph, she stated that fans tend to forget that she is a rugby player too. Ilona Maher further added that she is a remarkable player in both rugby formats, i.e, sevens and XVs.

“I think people forget that I am a good rugby player,” she said. “As an American athlete, I play sevens because it’s full-time and I get paid to play sevens. So of course I’m going to play that, live in San Diego, play full-time and get to play rugby. It’s very hard right now, there’s not a lot of XVs teams out there who will pay you to play the sport you love."

She added:

“I’m a great rugby player – in XVs and sevens – I’ve just had to focus on sevens because of the situation. Coming to the PWR was about getting into it and feeling it again, because they are two different games."

Maher competed at the World Cup, but the team could not get past the pool stage.

Edited by Janhavi Shinde