The USA rugby union star Ilona Maher came up just short in ABC’s Dancing with the Stars finale on Tuesday night, finishing third in the judge’s scoring but an agonizing second after viewers’ votes were counted too.

Before her final dance with her partner, Alan Bursten, Maher summed up the impact of her stint on the show.

“I am strong and powerful, but I also can be graceful,” the Olympic sevens bronze medalist said. “So, the Mirrorball [Trophy] won’t be so much for me [if I win it], I think it’ll be for all the girls who’ve been told they’re too big, or they’re too muscly or they’re not pretty.”

In the event, the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy – named for the late British judge of the show and its UK equivalent, Strictly Come Dancing – went to Joey Graziadei (star of ABC’s The Bachelor) and dancer Jenna Johnson.

Stephen Nedoroscik, the US gymnast who won pommel horse and team bronze medals in Paris, finished fourth out of five pairs, with his partner, Rylee Arnold.

Maher’s next move will be eagerly awaited by her legions of new fans from her three-month stint on primetime screens, her huge following on social media, where she posts messages of empowerment mixed with trademark jokes, and across the rugby world.

Maher has said she wants to play for the USA at the 15-a-side Rugby World Cup in England next year. She would bring huge star power on and off the field – but has been away from the field for some time and will have more TV engagements to come. The Bachelorette has been hinted at, happily. On Tuesday night, ABC announced that Maher and Bursten will be a part of the Dancing with the Stars tour, in select cities.

They went into Tuesday’s joyously punishing three-hour finale third in the judge’s rankings from the previous week, on 57 points, one point behind two pairs: Graziadei and Johnson and Chandler Kinney (a young actor, star of Disney’s Zombies) and her partner Brandon Armstrong.

Introducing Maher, judge Bruno Tonioli called her “maybe the most powerful female star we’ve ever had – yet she also brings enlightenment”.

Maher’s first dance was in the redemption round – a chance to rectify mistakes made earlier in the season. Maher was given the jive, having cried after her first attempt at the form. She and Bursten duly tore the stage up to Shake a Tail Feather by Ray Charles. Maher had lifted Bursten previously but now she jumped into his arms.

“I’m not excited for the freestyle,” Maher said after the dance. “I was really just focused on this redemption, and it was eating at me all week, and I’ve been stressed all week. It might not be perfect, but I did my best.”

She scored three nines – but on a night where no judge gave less than that, it meant she and Bursten slipped to four points behind the leaders.

A chink of light opened up when Graziadei and Johnson “slipped” to just 29 out of 30 for their freestyle, which like that of Nedoroscik was based on the celebrity’s chosen sport, in this case the tennis Graziadei coached in Hawaii before finding reality TV fame. Danny Amendola, the Super Bowl-winning former New England Patriots wide receiver, varied things up by performing his freestyle routine as Ken to his partner’s bright-pink Barbie.

Maher started her freestyle routine in a mocked-up rugby locker room, shirts on the walls, each named for an Olympic teammate, and, presumably, the smell of mud, blood and embrocation filling the closed-in air. After a short monologue, with jokes, she and Bursten danced an exuberant rugby-themed routine, to Femininomenon by Chappell Roan. At the end, Maher, dressed in a daring mirrorball costume, tackled Bursten, knocking loose a similarly glittery rugby ball.

Judge Carrie Ann Inaba enthused: “It’s all about the impact you leave. You leave me feeling so empowered. That’s the magic.”

Three 10s followed, a perfect score.

At the Paris Olympics, Maher’s team did enough for third. That bronze medal has done wonders for women’s rugby in the US, on the field and off it. On Dancing with the Stars, Maher did all she could but finished one place short, for a notional silver. But she did wonders for herself, and for the game she plays.