Sophie Cunningham’s SI Push
WNBA guard Sophie Cunningham posted all‑natural bikini photos from a beach getaway ahead of her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit debut, a move that highlights how women athletes are growing crossover media profiles. (sportingnews.com) It’s another example of players expanding visibility beyond game coverage into mainstream culture and lifestyle platforms. (sportingnews.com)
Sophie Cunningham spent the week posting beach photos ahead of her first Sports Illustrated Swimsuit appearance, and the timing lined up with two other career moves: the 2026 issue reveal on April 8 and a new on-air role with USA Sports for the coming Women’s National Basketball Association season. Sports Illustrated said Cunningham, 29, was photographed by Katherine Goguen at South Seas Resort on Captiva Island, Florida, and that her rookie appearance will be part of the 2026 issue that reaches newsstands in May. This did not come out of nowhere inside basketball. Indiana acquired Cunningham from the Phoenix Mercury in a four-team trade announced on February 1, 2025, after six seasons in Phoenix and a 2022 year in which she averaged 12.6 points and 4.4 rebounds. Before the Women’s National Basketball Association, Cunningham built a name at the University of Missouri, where Sports Illustrated notes she finished as the school’s all-time leading scorer with 2,187 points. That gives her the kind of sports résumé that makes a fashion shoot read less like a detour and more like an extra lane. The 2026 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit rollout is also not centered on one player. Just Women’s Sports reported that Cunningham joined Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier and sprinter Melissa Jefferson-Wooden in Florida as part of a wider athlete-heavy preview released this week. That matters because Sports Illustrated has been moving further into athlete casting for years. Just Women’s Sports points to earlier appearances by Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka, and Ilona Maher, which means Cunningham is entering a pipeline that already treats elite women athletes as mainstream magazine talent, not novelty guests. Cunningham’s own quote to the magazine makes the pitch plain. She called the shoot “one of the most empowering things” she has done, while Sports Illustrated framed the feature alongside her new television contributor job, putting image, voice, and basketball résumé into one package. The bigger shift is that Women’s National Basketball Association players are no longer waiting for game broadcasts alone to make them famous. In Cunningham’s case, a Missouri scoring record, a trade to the Indiana Fever, a swimsuit debut in Florida, and a network role all landed in the same public window, which is how crossover profiles get built now.
