Chula Vista, Calif. (CBS News) – At the Team USA rugby training facility in Chula Vista, California, it’s not hard to spot the 5′10″, 200 lbs. of muscle that is Ilona Maher.
“I love tackling. I love getting out there. Just seeing exactly what I can do and how fast I can run. How hard I can hit,” Maher said.
Growing up in Vermont, Maher was always an athlete.
But she didn’t get into rugby until her senior year of high school. It was love at first tackle.
“It just kind of felt like, uh, it just fit, fit my body, the way that I was able to be physical and to be praised for being physical and to be praised for my size out there,” Maher said. “And I think I kind of made the late decision… let me try to keep playing this and play it in college and then have kind of kept going.”
…All the way to the women’s world cup and eventually making it onto the Tokyo 2020 Olympic team, where she became just as famous off the field for her behind the scenes content on TikTok.
Now, with more than a million followers, she brings them along on her daily life and uses internet trolls as motivation.
Part of Maher’s TikTok success has been her bold embrace of her feminine side.
“I think there has always been a divide. People believing that, oh, when you play sports, if you’re an athlete, you can’t be feminine,” she said. “I feel that I can be a beast and can play this very physical, aggressive sport while also keeping my femininity while I do it.”
Reporter Jamie Yuccas: Like you said, I’m a big person and I like being big. Did you always feel that way about yourself?
Ilona Maher: I always felt very big. And, and though I felt feminine, people would always call me masculine. I’m like, I don’t, I didn’t understand that. But now I’m like, oh, there’s a purpose here for it. Uh, I can stiff arm and I can defend and I can get up and tackle as hard as I can… For me, it’s really important that I am doing something that’s showing what my body is capable of and that’s why I want other women to even it’s just get in the gym and lift weights, like see what your body can do, you know, do get to the point where you can do a pull-up. Oh man, I’m so powerful. I can do this. I just think it gave me a new perspective on my body.
But for now, her sights are set on Paris and winning a medal in rugby.
Reporter Jamie Yuccas: What is it like for you to know that young women are watching you and you could be the reason it becomes more popular?
Ilona Maher: I guess makes me nervous in some ways, cuz I, I, people always like, you’re such a role model and we love you so much. And I’m like, well I also, I just don’t want you to think of me as the perfect person because I make mistakes and… I might not always say the right thing… But I know that these girls’ lives are being changed by it as well because they heard about rugby on a girl from TikTok. So they decided to try out this club program and then they met their best friends there and now they’re, you know, playing around, having the best memories. So, um, I’m honored and I just hope to keep exposing America to rugby.