Clad in a custom creation that fused Olympian strength with runway drama, the 3x gold medalist commanded the carpet like it was her lane in the final stretch. Eyes followed, cameras flashed, and whispers turned to buzz: Gabby had come to the Met Gala. But her statement to fashion was not done yet, the true headline was yet to come. Days later, she delivered the powerful news, debuting in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Now, while she stuns the internet with her beauty, her focus is to send out a message. What’s that?
“To me this is more than a swimsuit shoot-it’s about representation and showing that you can be both strong and sexy,” read the text on Gabby Thomas’ Instagram story as she posted herself posing on a beach in a silver swimsuit. Her hands were behind her neck, a subtle flow in her hair. She wrote, “Thank you @si swimsuit for celebrating so many athletes.” In 2025, SI is taking in many sportswomen with them. These include Anna Hall, Ali Truwit, Cameron Brink, Caroline Marks, Eileen Gu, Jordan Chiles, Nelly Korda, Suni Lee, and Toni Breidinger.
All of them have been photographed by Ben Horton in Boca Raton, Fla., for the 2025 SI Swimsuit Issue. Take a tap on the scene and you will see her posting another picture of herself, everything the same, but a different pose. She stands with her upper body turned slightly toward the camera, one arm raised and bent at the elbow as her hand lightly touches the side of her head, creating a soft frame around her face. But once again, rather than grace, her goal was to send out a message, and she once again wrote, “I hear a lot of girls talk about how they are afraid to work out because they don’t want to get too ‘bulky’ or it will ‘mess up their hair”
The Olympian continued, “I want to push back on that. Our bodies as women are capable of amazing things!! Strength is beauty.” She had also been vocal about body positivity in her interview with SI. She talked of being torn between wanting to look too masculine and strong, and also wanting to maintain a feminine look, and also be thin. There as well she sent out a message to the young girls, she advised them not to worry about what society thinks about their body. Not to worry about what society tells them their body is for. That’s for them to decide, and they can do amazing things with it.
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