Sophie Cunningham is making her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit debut in the 2026 issue, photographed by Katherine Goguen on Captiva Island off the coast of Fort Myers, Fla. The WNBA player, podcast host and analyst is part of a cast that also includes Napheesa Collier and Melissa Jefferson-Wooden.
The shoot puts Cunningham in a new spotlight just as her basketball profile keeps expanding. She was the 13th overall pick by the Phoenix Mercury in the 2019 WNBA draft, was traded to the Indiana Fever in 2025 and made 43.2 percent of her treys last season, a sharp mark for a guard who has built a reputation on spacing the floor.
Her SI appearance comes with the sort of production detail that usually hides behind the final images. The style team described its approach to the featured athletes' swimwear as a celebration of the female form, while hair was done by Cassi Carey for Imaj Artists using Joico and makeup by Roberto Morelli for Imaj Artists using Shiseido.
For Cunningham, the timing matters because the Swimsuit debut is landing alongside a season in which she will also work as a studio analyst and contributor to USA Network’s WNBA broadcasts. That gives her a second public role at the same time she is trying to stay visible as a player in Indiana.
The overlap is the point. Cunningham is no longer only being framed as a former Mercury draft pick or a recent Fever addition; she is being presented as a multi-platform figure whose game, voice and image all carry weight at once. The 2026 issue makes that broader identity harder to miss, and it signals that her next chapter is already underway.
