Ilona Maher Says She Doesn’t ‘Feel Bad for Crying’ on Dancing with the Stars: ‘It Felt Very Right in the Moment’ (Exclusive)

Ilona Maher got vulnerable on Dancing with the Stars this week, and the Olympian has no regrets about it.

Maher is competing on season 33 of the hit competition series with partner Alan Bersten, and she broke down in tears after getting a little off-beat during her jive on the Oct. 8 episode.

Days later, the 28-year-old told PEOPLE, “It felt very right in the moment.”

“I’ve been one who really puts things in and then that was when it burst. Of course it was on national television, so fun for me, but I also did not feel bad about it. I don’t feel bad for crying,” she said at the opening day of the Delta One Lounge at Los Angeles International Airport.

“I didn’t perform how I knew I could and I didn’t want to just be like, ‘Oh, I’ll get it next time,’ because it was hard,” she continued.

“I expect better of myself and I know I can do better. And I think it was just also everything coming to light, everything coming together.”

Maher also said that the demanding schedule for DWTS hasn’t helped her with the comedown from the emotional night.

“Tuesday was a really tough night and then instead of — you’d love to have time to regroup — [but] I was back Wednesday. I was, at 11 a.m., doing an interview for Dancing with the Stars and I had training that next day. So I will say it’s tough because I cried in all the interviews, I cried at training. It’s like I hadn’t gotten it all out yet. I think it was almost just a buildup of so much happening.”

The rugby player — who won bronze with the U.S. women’s rugby sevens team in Paris this summer — said that she wishes she had a bit more time for a “reset” before moving into week 5 of DWTS.

“It’s kind of interesting because now it’s like, ‘Okay, maybe next week you’ll do better.’ So I don’t know if I’ve fully reset, but I’m just going to try to, each day, take the moments that I can.”

In a video she shared as a joint post with Bersten on Instagram after this week’s episode aired, Maher said of her performance, “That was tough for me, but I have a great partner, and we have next week — they spooked us there, they spooked us a little bit — but we have next week to improve, so thank you all for your support.”

“Please keep voting, I will get better, I swear,” she said as she ended the video.

Bersten, 30, shared a post honoring his partner, too. “Words can’t describe how proud I am of you. It takes so much strength to be vulnerable. You have shown me just how much you care and I am so grateful to have you as my partner,” he wrote on Instagram. “You are an inspiration to millions, especially me.”

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Dancing with the Stars airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+ and streams the next day on Hulu.