• last month
Fresh off her big podium finish at the Olympics, Maher got an offer to compete on season 33 of Dancing With the Stars. She was a big fan, having grown up watching the show with her close-knit family, but the rugby star says she was “definitely hesitant” to accept. “I knew how hard it was going to be. I was not fooling myself that this would be an easy time."

But Maher has never been one to take the easy way out. "I was like, 'Okay, I want to do it, but I'm very scared to do it because I'm completely out of my comfort zone.'"

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Transcript
00:00I was definitely hesitant to do Dance With The Stars because I knew how hard it's gonna be.
00:05Come on, feel the noise.
00:08I was not fooling myself that this would be an easy time and you just get to dance.
00:11I used to watch it all the time with my family.
00:13We got to stay up late on Mondays to watch it.
00:16And I remember watching it and knowing those guys are working extremely hard.
00:20Every week they have a new dance that's crazy.
00:22And for like the past three years now my teammate Spiff has been like,
00:26Oh, you know, Alona, you gotta do Dance With The Stars.
00:28And I'd come in the locker room like, No, Spiff, that's way too hard.
00:31I can't be doing that.
00:32So when this offer came, I was like,
00:35Okay, I want to do it, but I'm also very scared to do it
00:39because it's something that I'm completely out of my comfort zone.
00:42I also felt like it'd be very hypocritical of me to not do it
00:46because I tell all these young girls to try things that could show you what your body's capable of.
00:51I tell them to, you know, play rugby and play sports.
00:54And yet here I am not wanting to try dancing
00:56because I'm afraid I might look stupid or not be able to do it.
00:59So it felt like if I'm saying it, I gotta do it as well.
01:02And I'm so happy I did. I'm learning so much.
01:04I'm having a lot of fun. It is extremely hard.
01:07I knew it. And it is exactly as I thought it was.
01:10But I think it's making me a better person.
01:13And I'm really having the time of my life.

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