“It was then scary"- Ilona Maher opens up speaking to a sports psychiatrist as she dealt with the nervousness of competing in the Olympics

Ilona Maher spoke about dealing with the nervousness of competing at the Olympic Games. The American athlete revealed that she spoke to a sports psychiatrist throughout the Olympics to maintain her focus amid the high-pressure situation in the French capital.

Maher made her second consecutive Olympic appearance in Paris. The US rugby team had made significant improvements in their game since the Tokyo Olympics and was considered to be one of the top competitors for the Olympics podium. Team USA lost to New Zealand in the semi-finals and eventually won the bronze medal in the event after a very close match against Australia.

During the Paris Olympics, Ilona Maher's popularity rose by multiple folds due to her incredible skills on the field as well as her fun personality on social media. Her videos with several other athletes from the Olympic Village were widely loved by fans.

Amid all the positive aspects of the quadrennial games, Maher revealed that she would get very nervous taking to the field by thinking about the magnitude of the audience watching the global event.

This eventually culminated in the fear of not being able to perform at full potential. Speaking to the Guardian, Maher revealed that speaking to a sports psychiatrist every night before the match helped her deal with her nervousness and calm down.

“It was then scary. Now I have three million people watching me. I have millions of people tuning in to see me play rugby. What if I knock the ball on? What if I miss a tackle and look like an idiot?" she said.

"It was important for me to not get carried away by that. That meant every night I was with our sport psych to do mindfulness to stay really present because I was nervous," she added.

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Ilona Maher on her winning an Olympic medal

Ilona Maher competes in Rugby Sevens - Olympic Games Paris 2024: Day 3 - Source: Getty

Ilona Maher was a part of the team that the USA's first Olympic medal in Rugby. She spoke about being a pioneer for change and hoped that the country would flourish even more in the sport in the upcoming Olympic games.

"We truly changed the game in Paris and did something so monumental. We just got a bronze, but honestly, it felt like a gold. And I think even some people, whenever they’re like, ‘Oh, you’re the gold medalist,’ I’m like, ‘Nope just got a bronze.’ But people, people of the reaction to it and because of how amazing it was, it seems like a gold ... We call it rose gold, actually. It's our rose gold," she said.

Furthermore, she thanked her fans for their unwavering support throughout the Games and revealed that it would be a little tough for her once the Olympic hype dies down.