The US Olympic rugby sevens star Ilona Maher will compete on Dancing With the Stars, ABC announced on Wednesday, continuing a remarkable run of publicity coups for the 28-year-old from Vermont.
“It’s almost like this is a cool rite of passage,” Maher told USA Today of securing a place on the TV hit. “So many of my Olympic idols, from Simone Biles to Suni Lee [both gymnasts], did [the show]. And it’s a new skill that gets me out of my comfort zone.”
Maher’s rivals will include the actors Tori Spelling and Eric Roberts; former NFL star Danny Amendola and former NBA star Dwight Howard; another Olympic medalist, the gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik; and Anna Delvey, the Russian-born “SoHo grifter” and convicted con artist who served nearly four years in prison for crimes including grand larceny and stealing a private jet.
Jason Kelce, the former Philadelphia Eagles NFL player whose support of Maher and the rest of the US women’s rugby team in Paris made headlines back home, was not announced as a cast member, despite rumours he would take part.
Maher’s public profile was high for an American rugby player before the Olympics but it has rocketed since she helped the US women beat Australia to win bronze at the Stade de France in July.
Now the most-followed rugby star in the world, Maher has celebrated her birthday on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers and completed a swimsuit photoshoot that saw Sports Illustrated label her a “feminist trailblazer”. Her endorsement of Kamala Harris for president, citing Republican threats to women’s reproductive rights, also made widespread headlines.
Speaking to USA Today about her role on Dancing With the Stars, Maher said: “A lot of rugby is just going full force and throwing your body at” your opponent. “So we’ll see how I can move my body here.
“My dance skills, I don’t think, are really up to par. My dance-with-my-friends vibe skills are OK, my ballroom is zero. Hopefully, having-fun-with-my-friends vibes can translate into this ballroom.”
Maher also said she was looking forward to “the glitz and glam” of the show, because, “I love getting dressed up. It’ll be really fun to wear more sparkles and more sequins.”
Publicity shots for the 33rd season of Dancing With the Stars showed Maher with her partner for the show, Alan Bersten. In one shot, both flexed their biceps.
A 5ft 10in, 200lb center, Maher is widely celebrated for her unabashed physicality on and off the field, her strong runs and stiff-arm dismissals of opponents garnering headlines such as: “America Has a Breakout Star of the Olympics – and She Plays Like an NFL Running Back”.
Maher took up rugby at high school in Vermont then won three US national titles with Quinnipiac University, from Connecticut. She first played sevens for the US in 2018 and has been to the Olympics twice. Having played twice for the US Eagles 15-a-side team, she recently told followers she wanted to make the squad for the Rugby World Cup in England next year.
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On social media, Maher spreads a message of body positivity and inclusivity. In August, she told NBC rugby “changed my body confidence by making me feel so good about myself, and I know it can do it for so many other girls.”
Speaking to Sports Illustrated, she said she “was a big girl growing up so I didn’t love being in pictures [and] was always … called masculine or whatever. But I never felt that way. But I don’t think you’re going to bully the girl who could probably beat you up in a rage. I love that [rugby] showed me what I can do. It showed me how capable my body is and it’s not just like a tool to be looked at and objectified.”
She also said: “If my cellulite was lower in that perfect range, I wouldn’t be doing what I could do. I wouldn’t be that powerful for it [so] I just really think sports have been so helpful.”
On Wednesday, Maher and Bersten posted short videos to TikTok, filmed in a dance rehearsal studio in New York City.
Maher said she was “so excited” to be “led by my amazing dance partner”. Bersten said, “So grateful to be doing this with Ilona Maher. Let’s go!”
