{"id":73427,"date":"2024-08-01T14:56:56","date_gmt":"2024-08-01T18:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?p=73427"},"modified":"2025-04-29T11:08:52","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T15:08:52","slug":"bronze-medalist-ilona-maher-and-the-power-of-unabashed-bigness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/bronze-medalist-ilona-maher-and-the-power-of-unabashed-bigness\/","title":{"rendered":"Bronze Medalist Ilona Maher, and the Power of Unabashed Bigness"},"content":{"rendered":"
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U.S. women’s rugby star Ilona Maher has ignited her fan base with her on-the-field skills and empowering social media messages. (Credit: Ilona Maher’s Instagram account)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Talk about an Olympic-class<\/a> win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a now-viral TikTok video<\/a> posted last month, U.S. women\u2019s rugby star Ilona Maher took a fat-shaming<\/a> commenter to task for betting that her body mass index is 30. \u201cI think you were trying to roast me, but this is actually a fact,\u201d she said at the start of her retort. “I do have a BMI of 30 \u2013 or 29.3, to be more exact.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maher then noted that she has been mocked and shamed for her athletic frame her entire life, sometimes to her great embarrassment. But after talking to medical professionals \u2013 \u201cbecause I go off of facts, not just what pops up [in my head], like you do,\u201d she noted to her would-be bully \u2013 she learned that the number, a calculation made using a patient\u2019s height and weight, doesn\u2019t actually tell us<\/a> much about a person\u2019s health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, \u201cit doesn\u2019t really tell you what I can do,\u201d Maher added. \u201cSo, yeah \u2026 I am considered overweight. But alas, I\u2019m going to the Olympics \u2013 and you\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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@ilonamaher<\/a>

As long as haters keep saying dumb stuff, I\u2019m gonna keep clapping back<\/p> \u266c original sound – Ilona Maher<\/a> <\/section> <\/blockquote>