Olympian Ilona Maher is nursing a brutal injury following a violent collision in a recent Bristol Bears rugby match.
Maher, 28, shared an update via Instagram on Saturday, January 18, writing, “When people keep asking me if I’m OK but I just broke my nose.”
Maher included a video of herself holding up a bag of ice to her face. She also lip-synched, “Been better, Carrie Ann.” (The athlete previously said the phrase last year after Dancing With The Stars judge Inaba asked why Maher was crying after she received tough feedback on her performance.)
In her post caption, Maher further revealed how she was recuperating.
“No sir, I am truly not OK,” she wrote.
Maher’s facial swelling went down within hours, but she was still left with a slight purple mark around her eye. In a Sunday, January 19, video, she speculated what people would think happened to her.
“Guys, stop fighting over me,” Maher joked. “There’s enough to go around. What? I am a model. Thank you so much. Oh, you’ve already fallen in love? It’ll pass.”
Maher, who won a bronze medal with the U.S. Women’s Rugby Team at the 2024 Summer Olympics, recently moved to England after signing with the Bristol squad.
“I am invested in what I’m doing now,” Maher exclusively told Us Weekly in December 2024. “Dancing with the Stars was all I was focusing on. I was in the studio every day. With rugby, with social media, it’s all I’m focused on.”
Fresh off her Olympic triumph, Maher competed on DWTS season 33 and finished in second place with pro partner Alan Bersten. Amid her athletic training, Maher’s gone viral for online content about dating. She, however, is not searching for love at the moment.
“I think it would just take somebody very special, somebody who, as we say, enhances my life for me to want to do it,” she told Us. “I saw one video of a girl who’s like, ‘As we know, Ilona hasn’t been on a date in years.’ Wrong. I go on dates. I just don’t like a lot of people. … I always love making connections and meeting people. I think first dates are fun.”
Maher continued at the time, “You can immediately know if you don’t like somebody, but then it can also be, really, a cool experience. So, whatever happens. I’m looking for a British babe, I guess.”
