From the Olympic stage to Dancing With the Stars, Ilona Maher has been all over, and now she’s bringing her spark to the UK with the Bristol Bears. Of course, with all the fame comes the trolls, right? But if there’s anyone who knows how to handle them, it’s Ilona. Well, Ilona made her debut for the Bristol Bears on January 5, 2025. For those who don’t know the backstory, here it is: she joined the Bears on a three-month contract in December 2024. While her team didn’t get the win in their 40-17 loss to Gloucester-Hartpury, Ilona still made an impact. She entered the game as a sub in the 61st minute and played for 20 minutes.

After the game, Ilona shared her thoughts on adjusting to playing rugby 15s after a long time in rugby 7s with Team USA. “I was just trying to watch and understand,” she said. “I think each game I am going to learn more and more. You do learn a lot by losing, but also it puts a fire under you for the next game.” Then, on January 7, Ilona posted a picture in her Bears uniform with the caption, “7’s is a battle but 15’s is a war – myself speaking real philosophical after my first 15’s game in a while.”

A couple of days later, she shared a video of herself in the stands, waving at teammates with a smile, and captioned it, “Take a picture, it will last longer.” But, of course, not everyone is a fan of her posts. One person watching all these, rudely commented on her post, “Are you a regular at the Bears games or just this one as Instagrammer was playing?” The fan thinks that Ilona is only attending the Bears’ game to get attention on Instagram rather than being genuinely involved in the team or the game itself. But Ilona didn’t let it get to her. She knows how to handle the haters with grace.

Ilona didn’t hold back in her response to the rude comment, firing back with a sharp, “I’m an Olympic medalist; put some respect on my name.” With her bronze medal from the 2024 Paris Olympics, she is already internationally recognized, so there’s no need for her to chase after fame or validation. To make it crystal clear she wasn’t here for the trolling, Ilona took a screenshot of the comment and posted it on her Instagram stories, adding a caption that read, “Don’t play with me.” That was all it took to shut down the trolls and make everyone clear who they were dealing with! But let’s not forget, this isn’t the first time she’s stood up to online hate. Remember when she was body-shamed?

Ilona Maher retorts at body-shamers with confidence

Last year, at the end of July, Ilona Maher came across a troll who body-shamed her, referring to her weight and her body mass index. The commenter wrote, ” I bet that person has a 30 percent BMI,” in an attempt to bring her down. But Ilona wasn’t going to let slip so easily. Instead, she clapped back with a sharp response: “I think you were trying to roast me, but this actually is a fact. I do have a BMI of 30 well, 29.3 to be more exact.” She continued to expound that BMI fails to take into consideration muscle density, and being a sportswoman, she has a different physiological build from any normal woman out there

Ilona stands 5’10 tall and weighs 200 pounds, and to triumph over the haters, she said, “I am considered overweight. But alas, I’m going to the Olympics and you’re not.” But even that didn’t stop Ilona from dancing! Last year, she courageously became part of the Dancing with the Stars cast. She dominated the show and even earned a perfect score at one point. Even though she did not win, her performance was quite satisfactory for her to silence the trolls.