Even for those who’re not a rugby fan, you in all probability know the identify Ilona Maher: The middle for USA’s Ladies’s Eagles Sevens has racked up over a million followers on TikTok, the place she does every little thing from sharing inside seems to be into professional sports activities (who can neglect her poking enjoyable on the notorious “anti-sex” beds in Tokyo’s Olympic Village?) to placing feminine magnificence requirements on blast. (Living proof: posting a photograph of her personal cellulite to show “all of us have it.”) And for those who hadn’t heard of her earlier than, chances are you’ll nicely quickly: She’s set to signify the US as soon as once more on the largest athletic stage on the earth.
Three years after she made her Group USA debut on the Summer season Olympics in Tokyo, Maher is making ready for one more spherical of Video games. When she spoke to SELF in late Might, she and her teammates had been taking part in their final match of the season—in sunny Madrid—earlier than they’d head residence to kick their Olympics coaching into excessive gear. Lower than a month later, on June 17, the official ladies’s rugby sevens roster was introduced—and Maher was on it. Quickly, the crew will fly to France to spend every week at a pre-Olympic coaching camp in Excursions, a metropolis a couple of hours’ drive from Paris. “This helps you acclimate to the time distinction, the climate,” Maher says. Then, it’ll be on to the Metropolis of Mild to rub shoulders with the remainder of the world’s prime rugby athletes.
With the Paris Olympics looming—the opening ceremony is on July 26—Maher says she’s each excited and just a little nervous. However she’s made peace together with her butterflies. “I believe it’s okay to be just a little nervous. It means you care,” she says.
One factor that helps her really feel comfy going into large competitions like this? A well-packed bag of must-haves that she will depend on to supply consolation regardless of the place she goes.
“Though you’re going to play rugby and it’s going to be robust, you need these little issues that offer you that escape or nonetheless [make you] really feel like your self,” Maher says. That’s why her private checklist of necessities contains a number of pores and skin and sweetness merchandise—she’s beforehand referred to as lipstick her “conflict paint.” In spite of everything, she says, athletes are extra than simply their exercise. “They wish to care for their pores and skin, really feel lovely, and be ok with themselves,” Maher says. “And that’s one thing that’s actually necessary to me as a result of being an athlete is such a small a part of who you’re.”
Right here’s what can be in Ilona Maher’s Self-Care Survival Package.
1. Some critical pores and skin safety.
We play in so many various climates, and we have to defend our pores and skin, wherever it’s. We go from locations the place the UV index is likely to be two to others the place it’s a lot greater: We’ve performed in Sydney, the place it was a 12 or no matter it will get as much as. For sunscreen, I take advantage of Solar Bum or one thing else with a extremely excessive SPF, like 50. We’re coaching, we’re sweating, so we would like one thing that stays on.
