Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue (2026)

The 2026 edition of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue recently launched, so it is time to do my yearly review. Let's start with Sophie Cunningham. Since her trade to the Indiana Fever a couple of years ago, Sophie has become one of my favorite athletes. She's outspoken and overall is an entertaining person, and thus she's a fun social media follow. I was glad when I heard she was going to be in this year's issue.

Nina Agdal's appearance in this year's issue was a pleasant surprise. Nina's rookie appearance in 2012 was memorable, and she is one of my favorite swimsuit models from the 2010s. I'm including her in my review here, not just because I like her, but because I think she had some of the better pictures from this year's issue. 

Another surprise for this year's issue was the appearance of Molly Sims. Her first issue was in twenty six years ago in 2000! She's now 53 years old and she had some really good pictures in this year's issue. A couple of other models to mention include Brooks Nader. She is perhaps the most famous current model, with her own reality TV show. I haven't thought much of her previous issue appearances, but I thought her pictures in this year's issue were quite good. Olivia Dunne has become a recent favorite, and as usual her pictures in this year's issue were some of my favorite. Before I wrap up, I have to recognize Christen Goff, who has become one of my favorite models from the 2020 era.

A couple of closing thoughts on the issue. The first is about the locations. Maybe I'm misremembering, but it seems like there were fewer locations in this year's issue compared to previous issues. While Montauk looks like a super cool place to visit, the picture backgrounds were a little redundant. Several pictures were taken in Botswana, in south Africa, and I've never been a huge fan of the safari backgrounds for the swimsuit issue. The other closing though is about Hilary Duff's appearance. I was completely fine with her appearing in the issue, but why are all of her pictures filtered? I find that trend to be annoying, honestly, and would have preferred for her pictures to be just normal pictures. The issue features great photographers so I don't know why the filters are necessary. 

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue (2025)

 

The 2025 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue came once again with multiple covers. I've never been a big fan of this concept, and instead prefer a one cover model per year approach. I remember in the past when revealing the cover of the issue was a big deal. Having multiple covers eliminates the specialness of that reveal. The multiple models approach is likely an attempt to sell more issues. I suppose in the grand scheme of things, in the age of digital editions, the actual cover of the physical edition of the magazine is less important. It's just a minor beef that I have with recent changes to the special edition magazine.

Moving past that minor quarrel, Olivia Dunne was one of the 4 cover models for the 2025 edition, and my favorite cover. This is her 3rd issue, and at this point is more famous for being a celebrity/model than athlete, but it is interesting that she is also a collegiate-level athlete. The other interesting cover of the 4 to me was Salma Hayek. I definitely did not anticipate seeing her appear in this issue, and good for her for appearing at age 58. 

On the concept of athletes appearing in the issue, this is not a new concept but I think this issue did a really good job of featuring current athletes. In addition to Dunne, Gabby Thomas and Nelly Korda were a couple of my favorites this year. 

One of the interesting changes with the issue that has occurred with the issue in the past year is the concept of digital covers. Gone are the days where the issue comes out once per year and otherwise nothing from the brand is heard from. Today's swimsuit issue is much more volatile, getting updates throughout the year in the form of digital covers. Unlike the idea of having multiple cover models on the physical issue each year, I like the idea of digital covers being released throughout the year. This allows for extra content throughout the year and keeps the brand and issue more relevant and fresh in people's minds. The fact that the cover is digital still keeps the physical issue important, and the once per season digital cover release seems like the correct cadence for this.

One of my favorite newer models from the issue has been Christen Goff (Harper), and she had a nice issue this year. I have featured her in previous posts about the issue, however, so instead I've decided to shift my focus on Penny Lane, a model who I've not featured in the past. This is Penny's second issue, and I'll be honest I think she flew under the radar a bit in her rookie season in '24. She had a really good set of photos for the 2025 issue, and stood out to me as one of the better collections for this year's issue. 

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue (2024)

The 2024 edition of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue was all about celebrating its 60th anniversary. I liked this focus much more than the 2022 edition, which tried too hard to be inclusive to too many situations in my opinion (when I initially wrote this sentence I was thinking it was the 2023 edition that annoyed me, but it was actually 2022. I wrote that the 2023 edition was better but honestly it wasn't that memorable I guess).  Focusing on the 60th anniversary brought with it the return of many previous models, which was quite nostalgic. Nostalgia is what keeps me interested in this issue in the present day, so seeing galleries from models who were featured when I was younger was fun. Kate Upton was one of the cover models (see above; again with the multiple covers...), and the 60th anniversary also featured some of my favorite previous models, including Chrissy Teigen (also on the cover) and Nina Agdal, not on the cover, but a good reminder of her memorable 2013 appearance.

There were multiple other models featured as part of the 60th anniversary celebration, many of which are on my list of previous favorite models. This list includes Brooklyn Decker, Hailey Clauson, and Tyra Banks. However, a lot of the models did not have their own full swimsuit gallery, which was a bit disappointing. Paige Spiranac was another one of these models featured. She was in the swimsuit issue back in 2018, and while it was disappointing that she didn't get a new gallery this year, I was glad to see her featured in this year's issue. 

The one former model that was not featured in the 60th anniversary celebration that really stuck out to me was Marissa Miller. She was one of my favorite models from the past and one who's galleries I thought were memorable (who can forget the iPod picture?). She was also featured in many of the memorable body paint issues. Upon looking her up for this post, I read that she was in the issue from 2002 through 2008. Honestly, I was thinking she was featured a bit more recently than this, more like 2010. Time really does fly.

Moving beyond the 60th anniversary celebration, let's shift focus to the rest of this year's issue, starting with the 2024 rookies. Olivia Dunne returned for a second time, though somehow was still classified as a rookie. Semantics aside, her appearance in the 2023 issue was a nice surprise and thus it was nice to see her back in the 2024 issue. It will be interesting to see if she continues to be in the issue in the future, and whether she continues to be listed as an athlete or a model.

The other two rookies who stood out to me were Berkleigh Wright and Xandra Pohl, both of which I expect to see in subsequent issues. This is especially true for Xandra, who I think looks a bit like former swimsuit model Daniela Pestova. 

Christen Harper has become one of my favorite models from recent issues, so I was glad to see her return for the 2024 edition. I think she had the best collection of pictures of all the models in this issue. I could have selected one of many to include in this post.

That wraps up my extensive review of the 2024 SI Swimsuit issue. Overall a great issue. I enjoyed the nostalgia of the 60th anniversary edition. There was a great "rookie" class featured this year, and recent favorite Christen Harper returned. My only complaint is that the official website is loaded with annoying ads and the pictures on the site are quite small. It would be nice if they were a bit higher quality or resolution. They used to be bigger so I feel like this is a bit of a backwards step. Otherwise it was a good issue, and I'm so late in reviewing it that the 2025 issue will be out before we know it!