Watch: Ilona Maher jumps in excitement after getting her first 10 of the season in 500th episode of DWTS

Ilona Maher was recently seen celebrating her first 10 points of the season in the most recent episode of DWTS. She concluded her 2024 Summer Games by winning a bronze medal in rugby.

Maher came under the limelight after delivering a notable performance at the Polaris Olympics in rugby, where the US team faced the Australian team in the bronze medal match and bested them with a score of 14-12. They clinched the first-ever Olympic medal for the USA in this sport.

The American has come a long way in this sport as compared to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where she and her team finished sixth behind Australia. Now, after a great performance in Paris, the athlete has risen to fame and is currently competing at the Dancing With the Stars Show.

Maher recently performed in the 500th episode of the show, where she and her dance partner, Alan Bersten, did the quickstep dance form, inspired by Jordan Fisher and Lindsay Arnold's performance in season 25. They delivered their performance to the song 'Chuck Berry' by Pharrell Williams and earned a score of 28 out of 30 points.

In this performance, Maher received her first 10 of the season, and a video of her celebrating this win has been making the rounds over the internet. One of the fans shared the video on X, where the athlete got a 10 from the show's judge, Carrie Ann, which was followed by Maher's jumping and hugging her dance partner. The post's caption read:

"Ilona for her first 10 of the season!!! And her highest score so far!!"

Ilona Maher opened up about her tough training for the Disney week at DWTS

In the fifth round of the DWTS, all the contestants performed routines inspired by Disney films. Ilona Maher and his partner's performance was inspired by the character of Luisa Madrigal from the movie 'Encanto.'

Following this performance, the rugby player opened up about playing this role and shared that it was very special for her.

“I’ve always seen myself in Luisa and it felt so right. And I think people always saw me as Luisa, even when the movie came out. So, to get to embody her in this way was really special for me and I think for them," said Maher.

Along with this, Maher also opened up about lifting her partner Bertsen on her shoulder during the performance and said that she had gone through extremely tough training for learning the stunt:

"Uh, good. There was a time when it was a little sore. And when you have a whole man on one shoulder... I did it for you guys. Training for Olympic rugby is very very hard. But this week was tough. I looked tired sometimes when we were practicing it. So I guess it’s okay to look tired in rugby, you know? You just ran meters, but in dance, you gotta look good to do it, yeah.”

Alongside being a right player, Ilona Maher was also the cover girl of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, where she posed in their beach attire and also posed topless with the Olympic bronze medal wrapped around her neck.