Ilona Maher Sends Strong Body-Positive Message on Set of ‘Dancing With the Stars’

The professional rugby player is proud of her muscles, and wants to put them on display.

Ilona Maher / Amy Sussman/Getty Images

On the set of her SI Swimsuit photo shoot, Ilona Maher said she feels most beautiful when she “look[s] strong and powerful.”

For those who have paid attention to her meteoric rise—on social media and the rugby pitch alike—over the past few years, you know that the Olympian is proud of her muscular form. In fact, she has used her own experience contending with and embracing her more muscular physique to build a platform dedicated to body positivity.

Her Instagram and TikTok content is a testament to her mission, which is to prove that society has gotten it wrong—that bigger bodies are “beautiful as well.” And, ever since earning a bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Maher (and her messaging) has only been propelled further into the spotlight.

When she posed for the cover of SI Swimsuit’s September digital issue in Bellport, N.Y., the opportunity was, in part, a call for body positivity. She wanted to show others that you can love yourself even if you don’t necessarily fit into society’s normal standards of “beauty.”

Now, she’s doing the same on Dancing with the Stars. Season 33 of the popular reality TV show has been an eventful one—and that is due, in part, to Maher. Of course, she and her partner, Alan Bersten, have been putting on a show on the dance floor each week. But, perhaps more importantly, the rugby player is using the platform to preach her message of body positivity to a wider audience.

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“Coming on this show, my big thing was to show big, muscular girls that you can dance and feel feminine and pretty,” she said following her performance on Oct. 15. “That’s always been my message.”

With that in mind, she has participated in the creation of her own costumes on the show. In fittings for her latest outfit—a deep royal blue number with sheer paneling throughout—Maher was intent on showing off her muscular form. “I wanna show more,” she said of her mentality. “I wanna show all my shoulders, whatever part of me—the cellulite—it is when I dance.”

Maher has come to appreciate her physique for what it brings her. “I’m very proud of what my body can do,” she stated. “And I’m very proud of how it looks and what it’s done for me and [where] it’s taken me in my career. So I don’t want to hide it.”