Ilona Maher, America’s greatest rugby star and “Dancing With the Stars” runner-up, has waltzed herself over to the United Kingdom to play for the Bristol Bears.
Maher introduced the transfer on her TikTok account Monday after months of hypothesis as as to if she would possibly be a part of the Premiership Women’s Rugby league. Rumors started to flow into in October that she was in talks with the Bristol or Gloucester groups, however the season began whereas Maher was competing on the favored actuality sequence “Dancing With the Stars.”
The present, which movies in Los Angeles, ended final week with Maher — and right here along with her associate, Alan Bersten — inserting second. She added to the hypothesis that her taking part in profession was headed throughout the pond when she posted over the weekend from an airport on her option to London.
But Maher lastly put the rumors to relaxation in movies on her social media, saying, “The Eagle has landed.”
“I’m wanting ahead to calling Bristol house as we gear up for the Rugby World Cup 2025 performed right here in England,” Maher joked.
She went on to joke if she might “get a roast” after filming the video, saying it was a giant purpose she was there.
Bears head coach Dave Ward described Maher’s signing as a “coup” in an announcement Monday, including that her type affords the crew “a brand new dimension.”
“She is likely one of the greatest names in girls’s sport, not to mention rugby, and we consider she’s going to add actual worth to our programme on and off the sphere,” Ward stated.
According to the crew, Maher will practice with the Bears earlier than spending the vacations within the U.S. and is about to return for a three-month deal beginning in January. The league remaining is scheduled for mid-March.
Maher has amassed greater than 3 million TikTok followers and one other 4 million on Instagram. The 28-year-old athlete rose to fame in the course of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, posting hilarious TikToks from the Olympic Village because the Covid pandemic restricted followers and relations from in-person spectating.
Her star has solely brightened for the reason that Tokyo Games, as Maher was a part of this summer season’s crew that introduced the U.S. its first rugby title in 100 years.
Fans diligently adopted her posts from the Paris Games. The U.S. girls’s crew received bronze on the 2024 Olympics, the furthest the crew has ever gotten on the Games.
Upon returning house, Maher took yet one more problem by signing on to hitch “Dancing With the Stars.” She described it as a present she used to look at along with her household and one thing that exterior her consolation zone.
“I feel I’m additionally doing it once more to point out that rugby gamers are so multidimensional,” Maher instructed ABC’s “Good Morning America” in September. “We go on the market on the sphere and we’re beasts, however I could be a magnificence, I can dance, I can do all this stuff.
Throughout the competitors, Maher sometimes struggled, and at one level even broke down crying after a tough try at a jive. But followers praised the Olympian for her vulnerability and willpower, voting for her week after week.
She additionally grew to become the primary feminine movie star on the present to raise her associate in a dance.
Maher’s followers have been thrilled to listen to the information that she’s becoming a member of the Bears, and amongst these cheering her on have been her “DWTS” forged mates.
“Let’s go!!!!!!! I’m so happy with you. And can’t wait to see you kill it,” Bersten commented on Maher’s Instagram.
The Premiership Women’s Rugby league can also be going to be a slight change in format for what many are used to seeing Maher play in. She sometimes performs rugby sevens — with seven gamers per crew, as is the type on the Olympics — however the league performs 15s, with 15 gamers per crew.
The 15s not solely has extra gamers, the matches are additionally considerably longer. The smaller squad is on the sphere for 2 7-minute halves, whereas the standard rugby 15s is performed in two 40-minute intervals.
