Olympic Ilona Maher was nervous about the performance on Dancing with the stars for the first time – especially when it came to getting their first score.

“I have to look at their feedback again because I had a blackout,” Maher, 28, said exclusively We weekly after the premiere of DWTS on Tuesday, September 17th.

Although Maher did not receive all the feedback, Alan Berstenmade a few notes to tell her that Derek Hough mentioned “how much confidence” she had and that he wanted to see more of it in her dancing. (The couple scored 18/30 for their cha-cha to “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” by Shania Twain.)

“I think the most important thing is that we train. It’s different in rugby because you have to perform in training,” she explained to Us. “So when I’m training, even when I’m learning the steps, he wants me to smile, perform and have fun, whereas in rugby training I say, ‘Okay, just do this.’ It doesn’t matter what my face looks like. So I think that’s what I need to get better at.”

The two-time Olympian noted that despite all the nerves, her first performance of the evening was “so exciting.”

“I’m so glad we made it,” she said. “I think we’ve been training for a while, and I’ve always been someone who loves to train, but I love game time and I love doing it. It’s just so much fun, and I think it just keeps getting better.”

Having just returned from the Olympic Games in Paris, where she took home the bronze medal in rugby, Maher admitted that after her first DWTS practice.

“I’ve been running. I’ve been training. … Alan and I have been training recently. We did an assault bike workout. And that was the most sore I’ve ever had,” she said. Us, She added that her feet hurt and she got blisters from dancing.

“So I will always remember my time dancing,” she joked.

During their practical experience, Maher and Bersten, 30, DWTS The two were pros for five seasons and quickly hit it off after bonding over training – and bagels in New York.

“Brooklyn Bagels was amazing. I made it for them. That was the first bagel I’ve had in about five minutes,” Bersten joked.

Maher noted that they bonded over food and then “over training and being strong.”

“I think it’s great to have a partner who also encourages me to be strong and really use my body,” she added.

With reporting by Carly Konsker