Ilona Maher - September Digital Cover

One thing about Maher is that she is never not working. While it’s partly due to her unyielding work ethic, it's also a result of navigating the patriarchal society she's forced to endure. As a female athlete, she doesn’t have the luxury to step back and unwind when the game clock stops. While many male rugby players have one job, most of their female counterparts need two. All sports have a gender gap, but rugby stands as one of the most egregious offenders of it. Even with her level of fame, Maher wouldn’t be able to afford rent without supplementing her income with sponsorships. And she’s not alone. Research shows that women in sports need endorsement deals twice as much as men do, and yet they’re less likely to receive them.

While she’s frustrated, Maher isn’t deterred. Her love for her sport is palpable because in rugby she didn’t just find a career—she found herself. Maher credits the sport for helping her fall in love with her body and see it for what it could achieve, rather than just how it was perceived. She struggled with accepting herself as a tall girl with broad shoulders and a muscular build.

In truth, it feels strange to even acknowledge these misogynistic comments because they feel so removed from the undeniable evidence standing right in front of me. Maher is ethereal and stunning. When she walks into a room, all eyes naturally gravitate toward her. Throughout our time together, I actually have to stop myself from staring at her. Whether it’s her piercing green eyes or her olive skin, it’s giving sentient caramel. With a jawline and cheekbones that seem like they could cut through steel, she gives a Roman statue a run for her money. On set, I watch everyone slowly lose their minds. “I’m drooling,” Sports Illustrated Swimsuit editor in chief MJ Day confesses to me a few hours in. “I’m unwell.” And while it feels odd to objectify a woman with so many more important accomplishments under her belt, it feels necessary given the distorted perceptions that a small yet vocal minority of men project about Maher online.

When I ask Maher about the future, it seems like she’s still trying to wrap her head around the present. She’s got many exciting secret projects that she can’t tell me about, but she mentions more than once just how daunting fame is to her. She frets being called a role model or being put on a pedestal only to disappoint her fans when they find out she’s not perfect. “I just try to really stress like I am human,” she explains. “But I think I do really care a lot. And I do want people to like me.” Her apprehension is understandable. I mean, if you had just just made six million new friends, wouldn’t you be worried about losing them too?

But one thing is certain: she handles the spotlight that she’s earned with great care and she’s intent on making a meaningful impact. When I bring up the upcoming presidential election, her demeanor shifts; the playful, lighthearted tone she’s displayed so far gives way to a more serious, contemplative one.

Maher is humble to her core, so she’d never admit this, but she shares some commonalities with a potential first female president. It’s hard to think of two bigger male institutions than rugby and politics. Yet, here stand Maher and Harris, whose undeniable popularity completely dismantles the very outdated sexist notions that tried to shut them out of those fields in the first place. Maher is part of a seismic shift when it comes to growing female representation in the most traditionally masculine realms of society. Her rise to fame transcends rugby or her personal journey; it symbolizes a movement where women no longer wait for a seat at the table because they can craft a new one instead.

But when I try to dig deeper into her past trauma or insecurities, Ilona doesn’t tag along. She’s vulnerable, but she’s not a victim. She talks openly about her struggles with body image, but she doesn’t build a house there. There’s something refreshing about the way she embraces her body. She talks about her struggles with self-acceptance as casually as she would discuss improving the speed of her kick or break down the strategy behind a flawless lineout. It’s surgical, it’s uncomplicated and it’s refreshingly not that deep.

Maher has always been a legend, but she’s been extra legendary of late. Since she led the U.S. women’s rugby team to its first bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, she’s received countless messages, endorsements, offers for representation and what seems like an unrelenting cascade of requests. During her swimsuit fitting, her agent, Rheann Engelke, turns to me and says she’s been having trouble meeting the demand. “There’s so much is coming in for her right now,” she sighs, equal parts exhilarated and exhausted. “If I step away for more than 10 minutes, I come back to so many emails.”

Though Maher blew up during the Olympics Games, boosting her combined social following by 300% in just a matter of weeks– she’s anything but an overnight success. At 17, with the encouragement of her father —who was also a rugby player—she took up the sport and quickly became the top college rugby player in the country. She ascended to the grand stage at the 2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens and the Tokyo Olympics, where she went viral for her signature red lipstick and her corky behind-the-scenes TikToks about the infamous “anti-sex” cardboard beds. She’s now become the most followed rugby player in the world on Instagram, surpassing any man in her sport. With more than six million followers across social platforms where she posts almost daily, she’s basically governing a small country, while also being a full-time, Olympic-level athlete.

“How do you like your coffee?” Ilona Maher asks me on the set of her own Swimsuit Issue cover shoot. With a 4:15 a.m. call time, she could have easily asked for an elaborate warm drink to be delivered to her door. But instead, she’s pouring herself a filter coffee in a paper cup and kindly asks if I want one, too. When she hands me my drink, I lean in to ask her what it’s like to be one of the famous athletes on Earth, but she gets up again, this time collecting some of the crew’s garbage. I can’t decide if I'm in the presence of Serena Williams or Princess Diana, but what I do know is that trying to slot Ilona Maher into any category is a futile endeavor.