While American Ilona Maher skillfully markets the sport on social media, New Zealand, as expected, wins the final against Canada.
Researcher Run: New Zealander Portia Woodman-Wickliffe (l.) heads to the painting field Photo: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/ap
PARIS taz | Women’s rugby shines. That means the players were beaming for the final of the Olympic tournament. Rarely have you seen female athletes look happier during the playing of the national anthem than the finalists from Canada and New Zealand. Pure joy. As for their success: they were both assured of a medal and the reputation boost their sport made in Paris. After the final in the sweltering heat in the Stade de France, the broadcast continued of course. In any case, the New Zealanders won 19:12. But also of the silver medalists from Canada, probably the biggest surprise in this rugby tournament.
Ilona Maher from the USA was also able to shine at the end, although she had imagined the start of this final day differently. In the semi-finals of the Olympic rugby tournament, her team had no chance against New Zealand. In a sense, Maher had already won before this match. Because never before had so many people in the US been involved in women’s rugby.
The defender, whose physical presence makes even tall men look small, posts tirelessly on social media and has amassed two million followers on Tiktok and Instagram. Not bad for a woman playing a sport that is still considered by many to be a man’s sport. At the Paris Games, it was different. On the final day, 70,000 fans came to the stadium. The French women were already out of the race for medals.
Never before have so many people wanted to see a women’s rugby match live. The 60,000 spectators the day before, when the quarter-finals were played, had already set a new record. So something is happening. It was already hinted at last year. 58,498 spectators came to Twickenham, England’s national rugby temple, to watch their match against France.
Dynamic game
The teams played according to rugby rules with 15 players on each side. In the Olympic version, there are only seven players per team on the field. The game is played twice for seven minutes with a short break in between, which makes the game dynamic and spectator-friendly.
French superstar Antoine Dupont, one of the highest-paid professionals in 15s rugby, had truly ennobled the 7s variant with his participation in the games. Since the French Olympic victory, which is somehow still being celebrated in rugby country France days after the decision, no one has laughed at the small Olympic version of the full-contact sport anymore – not even the women’s.
American model athlete Maher’s social media activities are a small building block for this success. Among other things, she made former footballer Jason Kelce, who won the Super Bowl in 2017, a fan of women’s rugby. The man, who could easily be imagined as the brother of Taylor Swift’s boyfriend Trevis Kelce, the reigning Super Bowl champion, was even in Paris. The prominent celebrity family member had donned a very tight rugby shirt to promote the team.
For Maher, it was nice to walk across the field with her arms raised at the end. The US won the bronze medal match against Australia. She then spoke loudly about her mission for the game of rugby and her passion for social media, which for her is also worth it: “That’s why I’m pushing so hard now.” Before Maher appeared, a teammate sneaked through the mixed zone that no one was interested in. “You’re just waiting for the Tiktoker,” she said.
When one of the big stars of the rugby scene, New Zealand’s Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, entered the mixed zone, most of the media representatives had already left. They had collected enough statements from the TikToker. What the New Zealand captain had to say was almost exclusively of interest to specialist journalists from her home country. Woodman-Wickliffe answered the questions with the three Olympic medals she won around her neck: the gold from Rio de Janeiro, the silver from Tokyo and the one she had just won.
Dressed in New Zealand’s national Maori flag, the 33-year-old spoke about her career, which she is now ending. About the journey that women’s rugby has taken in this time and what she plans to do in the future: “Laze on the sofa, go to Meckes or KFC and maybe change a few babies.”
She and her wife already have a daughter. Anyone who scrolls through her Instagram account knows this. Compared to Maher, he has a modest 145,000 followers, but a remarkable one for a rugby player. It is now a few thousand more than before the Games. “I wondered what was going on,” she said. She has benefited from Ilona Maher’s social media success.
The self-promoter made rugby a bit bigger in the Olympic version during the three days of the Olympic tournament.