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Ilona Maher joining English club Bristol Bears on three-month deal
Maher helped Team USA win a bronze medal at the 2024 Olympics, has millions of followers on social media.
Ilona Maher, who helped Team USA win a bronze medal in sevens at the 2024 Paris Olympics, is joining Premiership Rugby side Bristol Bears on a three-month deal that starts in January.
Maher, a 28-year-old Vermont native, announced the news on social media in conjunction with the club.
“I heard this was bear country,” Maher declared in the team’s video reveal. It will be a chance for her to compete in England’s top division, where she will be capable of playing both center and on the wing.
Bristol cited Maher as “the most followed rugby player in the world on social media,” with 4.5 million followers on Instagram and another 3.2 million on TikTok. She recently competed on Dancing with the Stars, finishing in second place alongside Alan Bersten.
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Still, Maher made it clear that her focus is on her rugby career.
“I didn’t want people to think I wasn’t serious because I do social media or social media takes away my impact on the field,” she told The Guardian’s Sarah Rendell. “As a female athlete I would love to just focus on what I am doing on the field but if I want to live a comfortable life, if I want to make real money, I have to actually do more.”
At the Olympics, Maher went viral for her punishing runs that helped the U.S. team win its first medal in the event.
Her first game for Bristol could come against Gloucester-Hartpury on Jan. 4, a Bears rival and a direct competitor in the Premiership table (Bristol is currently fourth with 25 points while Gloucester-Hartpury is fifth with 23 points).
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The deal almost didn’t happen. According to Maher, she contacted multiple English clubs in late 2023 about joining after the Olympics, but was initially ruled ineligible because she hadn’t played 15s rugby since 2021.
Bristol won her over by leading the charge to overturn the ruling and get her a visa. With the support of Rugby Football Union, the club won its appeal, clearing the way for the American to sign in England.
Free to choose from multiple options, Maher said she focused on Bristol because of the effort the club had shown on her behalf.
“I had a lot of other teams calling to come play,” she told Rendell. “I think I stood by Bristol because they did this work and I wanted to stick with them.”
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