Ilona Maher won a Bronze medal at the Paris Olympics, but the women’s rugby player should get an award for her comedic shade. The professional athlete clapped back at a body shamer via TikTok before she dominated the field with Team USA.
“I bet that person has a 30 [percent] BMI,” a person wrote about Ilona, 27, alongside a laughing emoji.
Ilona had no problem responding to the hate and slammed the critic with factual shade.
“Hi, thank you for this comment. I think you were trying to roast me,” the Vermont native said as she kicked off the quick-witted video posted on July 10. “But this is actually a fact I do have a BMI of 30 well, 29.3 to be more exact, I’ve been considered overweight my whole life. In middle school, elementary school, high school – I was always considered overweight.”
Ilona told a story from high school when she had to turn in her physical paperwork to the office. She was “embarrassed to turn that in” because “right at the bottom of the page, it said overweight.”
Over the years, Ilona consulted with her dietitian, specifically about BMI, and learned that it “really isn’t helpful for athletes.”
“It just tells you what your height and weight and what that equals. I’ve said it before. I’m 5 feet 10 inches, 200 pounds and I have about, and this is an estimate – but about 100 and 70 pounds of lean mass on me,” she explained. “Do that math in your head. You probably can’t. That’s pretty crazy.”
Ilona listed that BMI “doesn’t tell you what I do in the field,” nor does it reflect how “fit” she is.
“It’s just a couple numbers put together. It doesn’t tell you how much muscle I have or anything like that,” she continued. “So, yeah, I do have a BMI of 30. I am considered overweight but, alas, I’m going to the Olympics – and you’re not.”
The Quinnipiac University alum’s followers got a kick out of the video and recited their favorite parts of the clapback in the comments section.
“‘I’m going to the Olympics and you’re not’ was absolute [fire emoji],” one person wrote, while a second follower commented, “‘You probably can’t’ loved this whole post, but that, that was perfect.”
Ilona not only made it to the 2024 Olympics, but she and her teammates made history by winning the United States’ first-ever medal for the sport by taking home bronze in the women’s rugby sevens game.
The lipstick queen got emotional in a post-game interview and expressed her gratitude for how far she and the team have come since the Tokyo Olympics.
Before they took home a big win for the U.S. fans were loving the women’s rugby team’s viral content on TikTok. When they arrived in Paris, Ilona made a hilarious video via TikTok of herself entering the Olympic village with the Love Island theme song playing on July 23.
In the clip, Ilona made multiple entrances inside a room wearing different Skims x Team USA bikinis with the text reading, “A hot new bombshell has entered the village.”
