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U.S. women's rugby player dropped the mic on viewer who mocked her BMI

They're right, but it doesn't mean what people think.

@ilonamaher/Instagram

“BMI doesn’t tell you what I can do.”

It seems like at least once a year, the topic of “BMI,” or “body mass index,” being a flawed measuring system for fat mass and health comes up in conversation. Experts will explain how BMI leads to an incomplete perspective at best—since it doesn't take into consideration several key factors that influence a person’s body composition—and at worst, actual health risks, affecting eligibility for things like weight loss medications, insurance rates, joint-replacement surgery and fertility treatment. And then life moves forward.

And yet, despite the constant debunking, the belief in BMI still marches on. And this time, it was hurled at the USA rugby star and Olympian Ilona Maher. More specifically, someone commented “I bet that person has a 30% BMI” on one of Maher’s TikTok videos.

ilona maher, olympics, team usa, rugby, bmi, body weightBMI is not always an accurate measure of health.

Could this person have simply been pointing out the inherent flaw of BMI? Saying that Maher, an elite athlete, would be considered “overweight” using this system? Perhaps. But this is the internet we’re dealing with, so Maher (and others) interpreted it to be an insult.

And under that context, Maher wasn’t having it, and chose "not to just ignore the haters."

“Hi, thank you for this comment. I think you were trying to roast me, but this is actually a fact. I do have a BMI of 30. Well, 29.3 to be exact,” Maher said in response video…which became something of a roast itself.

Maher talked about how she had been considered “overweight” her entire life, and even recalled being “so embarrassed” to turn in a physical form to the office which had “overweight” written on it.

“I chatted with my dietician, because I go off facts, and not just what pops up here. You know, like you do.” she quipped while tapping her temples.

Maher is 5-ft.-10-in. and 200 lbs, which is considered “overweight” by BMI standards. But as she explained, about 170 of those 200 pounds are “lean muscle mass.”

“Do that math in your head…you probably can’t,” Maher said sarcastically.

It’s easy to see through this example how bogus BMI really is, especially for athletes.

Essentially, “BMI doesn’t tell you what I can do.”

“It doesn’t tell you what I can do on the field. How fit I am. It’s just a couple of numbers put together,” she said. “It doesn’t tell you how much muscle I have, or anything like that.”

Maher concluded by faux lamenting, “I do have a BMI of 30. I am considered overweight. But alas, I am going to the Olympics, and you’re not.”

u.s. women's rugby, jill biden, 2024 olympics ilona maherThe U.S. women's rugby team with First Lady Jill Biden and members of the U.S. delegation to the 2024 Summer Olympic GamesThe White House/Public Domain

While Maher’s clapback was certainly satisfying, it also provided some much needed reassurance to folks. So many commented on how this outdated concept has affected (or still effects) their own body image of that of a loved one.

“How can I get my teenage daughter with a high BMI (but fit!) to understand this?! She feels shamed even at the doctor for her BMI.”

“Dancer here, I'll never forget at 13 being told I had the BMI of 24 of ‘overweight.’ I broke down and the nurse said it didn’t mean anything and all I could think was then WHY are you making me do this?!”


body weight, scale, BMIWeight and BMI can't say what we can do.Giphy

“I had to ask the doctor’s office to put a note on my child’s file to not bring up/talk about BMI in her check ups. It isn't an accurate representation of health!”

“Thank you for sharing your weight, bc seeing lbs numbers in different bodies has been so helpful in me loving mine. I’m nowhere near an athlete's body but damn, the numbers really do us in.”

Until a more affordable solution pops up, BMI will continue to rear its ugly head in doctor’s offices and in our psyches. Maybe this is a reminder that our bodies are so much more than height and weight every now and again is a good thing. And if it comes from an Olympian…even better.

Maher also shut down any notions that her BMI was high due to anything other than muscle with a Sports Illustrated cover shoot in August of 2024. Um, yeah.

Thin and fit are not the same thing. Thank you, Ilona Maher, for the powerful reminder.

This article originally appeared last year.

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A rugby player wanted to propose to his boyfriend, so he got the whole team in on it.

When Fernando Ferreira proposed to his boyfriend, Greg Woodford, at London Pride this year, he had help from his teammates.

The Kings Cross Steelers RFC player got down on one knee after an epic fake-out line-out to the delight of everyone within 20 feet of the pair.

Of course, the whole thing was captured on video:

As a Yank, I'm not super familiar with rugby pre-game rituals, so here's my best play-by-play interpretation of how the proposal went down:

The team gets into their rugby squats...

...and executes a perfect pre-action take-a-knee...

...after which Ferreira sets off on a post-huddle straight-backed nervous walk to the crowd...

...only to slyly pop out a ring instead of kicking a drop goal or whatever it is rugby players do.

This part I understand:

And the crowd goes wild.

(In case it wasn't obvious, Woodford said "yes.")

As the first gay, inclusive rugby union club and a fixture at Pride, the Kings Cross Steelers have a leg up on delightfully merging the traditions of their sport with the institution of holy matrimony.

Same-sex marriage has only been legal in Great Britain since 2014 (the unions are still banned in Northern Ireland), and it's only been 17 years since the Netherlands became the first country to commit to marriage equality. Which means that, as a world, we're just scratching the surface of creative, LGBTQ sports-themed proposals and public displays of affection (the 2016 Olympics had a few pretty neat examples).

Could intra-team question-popping be the next frontier? A point guard scrawling "Will you marry me?" on a bounce pass during a pick-up game? An umpire taping a ring to a replacement baseball he sends a pitcher? A NASCAR pit crewman slipping a note to his driver during a tune-up?  

The sky's the limit.

Congratulations to the happy couple.

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A rugby player only needed 2 sentences to shut down critics of his relationship's age gap.

Sam Stanley had a short career as a rugby player, but he left a big impact on the game.

Stanley (far right) in action. Photo by Atsushi Tomura/Getty Images.

Stanley came out as gay in 2015 while he was still an active player. He was one of the first pro rugby players to do so.

He said at the time that his teammates and opponents, to his surprise, were overwhelmingly accepting. "What I found especially is that rugby players are a lot more open-minded than I thought," he told QX.

Though he's only 25, he recently walked away from the sport and now spends his days as a personal trainer.

But that doesn't mean life has gotten much quieter.

Stanley has been with his partner, Laurence Hicks, for seven years. But his recent honesty about the relationship brought the haters out of hiding.

The two, who are more than a few years apart in age, met on a niche dating site called SilverDaddies. Stanley doesn't hide or apologize for that (nor should he have to).

But plenty of people have felt the need to chime in on the relationship, especially after Stanley recently announced that they were engaged.

In fact, Stanley writes in an Instagram post that he kept the relationship hidden from most of the world for a long time, likely because he knew not everyone would understand.

"After being a part of each others lives for almost 7 years, [Laurence] has been my pretend godfather, uncle, cousin and many others in order to make sure no one found out about us and that we were a couple."

To those who question the relationship and age gap, Stanley has a beautifully simple response.

"Laurence and I love each other and to us that’s all that matters. We’re proud to represent the many relationships like ours," he told Attitude.

What a great message. With so many of us concerned over "who's with whom for the money" and "who's out of whose league," the most important thing is that those of us who want a relationship find one that makes us truly happy.

Stanley and his fiance are living proof that love doesn't have to look a certain way — it just has to work.

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Fiji won its first gold at the Olympics, and the entire country celebrated.

No one went to work or school on Aug. 11, 2016, in Fiji. Instead, the entire country was glued to the TV.

Thousands of people packed into the ANZ National Stadium in Suva. At Swami Vivekanand College in Nadi, all 700 students were called down to an assembly. Every restaurant, bar, resort, and home in the country was at max capacity with eager-eyed Fijians holding their breaths.

Photo by Feroz Khalil/AFP/Getty Images.

The event? Fiji vs. Great Britain in the rugby sevens final at the Rio Olympics. At stake? Fiji's first ever gold medal in Fiji's most celebrated sport.

When the final whistle sounded, the score was 43-7 in favor of Fiji.

Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images.

Team captain Osea Kolinisau sank to his knees, overcome with emotion at what he and his team had achieved.

The 900,000 people back home in Fiji erupted into unanimous, Earth-shattering celebration.

Photo by Feroz/Khalil/AFP/Getty Images.

It was pure, unadulterated, unstoppable joy.  

Photo by Feroz Khalil/AFP/Getty Images.

The medal is fitting, as Fiji has been dominating rugby on the world stage for a long time despite many obstacles.

The island nation has a smaller budget than other rugby teams and limited training facilities. It also experiences cyclones, which are dangerous tropical weather systems similar to hurricanes that can cause incredible amounts of damage.

The aftermath of Cyclone Winston in February 2016. Photo by Feroz Khalil for Mai Life Magazine via Getty Images.

In February 2016, a category 5 cyclone ripped through Fiji, killing over 40 people and leaving thousands homeless, including two of their rugby players. Despite that, the team remained dedicated and trained the very next day.

"Rugby is like a religion in Fiji," Elenoa Baselaia of the Fiji Times told CNN. "Whether it's with paper scrunched together to make a ball, it's with bottles or a real rugby ball, somebody in the neighborhoods is playing rugby."

Photo by John MacDougal/AFP/Getty Images.

On Aug. 11, Fijians celebrated in stadiums, erupted into cheers at bars and in their homes, and eventually took to the streets, waving Fijian flags and jumping for joy.

Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama was among those celebrating, and he even declared the day a public holiday.

“We’ve got celebrations programmed for when [the team] returns. We are all proud to be Fijians right now,” said Bainimarama.

Even if you don't know much about Fiji (or rugby), it's moments like these that remind me why we celebrate the Olympics.

Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images.

Fiji has had a rough year, but they've earned their moment in the spotlight.

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