For much of the last few weeks since the Paris Olympics, you have heard a lot from Ilona Maher, who plays Sevens rugby for the United States and won a bronze medal thanks to a 14-12 win over Australia in the final round.
Even though Maher didn’t score the game-winning try and conversion (it was teammate Alex Sedrick who had the 103-yard run), she has been a champion of not only the sport, but for body positivity and advocacy for women in athletics.
Not bad for a former field hockey player for Burlington (Vt.), who discovered rugby in high school, continued at Norwich and Quinnipiac, then joined the U.S. national team pool in 2018. She has become one of the most-followed athletes in the entire social media universe and has continued her brand expansion to cosmetics and even modeling for Sports Illustrated.
Now, Maher isn’t the only player borrowed from another athletic discipline to have medaled for the United States. Sydney Satchell, a former women’s lacrosse player from Howard University, helped the U.S. women’s seated volleyball team to gold at the Paris Paralympics.
Satchell had graduated from Howard in 2014, but less than a year later was involved in an auto accident which resulted in the amputation of one of her legs. But by 2019, she had made the women’s national team pool in sitting volleyball, which the United States had first played in the Paralympics in 2004.
Seated volleyball is played on a smaller court and with a shorter net with six participants a side. All most be seated during play on the court when the ball is in play.
The United States was able to win the gold in Paris with a four-set win over China in the final. Satchell became the first Howard University alumnus to win a gold medal in either an Olympics or a Paralympics.