American gymnasts Aly Raisman and Simone Biles made waves at the Rio Olympics in summer of last year, winning numerous medals in their various competitive categories.
They are going to be back this year in the limelight initially not in an international gymnastic competition though but as part of the 2017 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.
Apparently, the two gold medal-winning gymnasts have agreed to trade their leotards for bikinis and they are going to flaunt it on the cover of the 2017 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition.
The two young ladies are taking the modeling world by storm, and critics think they are the perfect candidates for this year’s famed issue, reports Popsugar.
MJ Day, the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue editor, said that Aly and Simone represent all that is beautiful and strong and inspiring in women today.
The lady editor added the two are women are elite athletes who are captivating and impressive in their own professional accomplishments with lots of Olympics gold medals between them.
She said that they strikingly sexy and beautiful in front of photographer James Macari’s lens.
MJ explained that she loves seeing Aly and Simone shine in an entirely different way in the swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated and being able to share their gorgeous and powerful images with the world including their beauty and what they can achieve further.
There have been so many positive developments in the modeling world with athletes representing modeling campaigns, and now, Aly and Simone are redefining what it means to be a model on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
Swapping out their leotards
The 22-year-old Aly Raisman and 19-year-old Simone Biles, swapped out their America-themed leotards and slipped into sexy bikinis for the annual issue of the Swimsuit Edition of Sports Illustrated as announced last week, reports Page Six.
The ladies are members of the US women’s gymnastics team that scored big in Rio back in August.
Sports Illustrated teased two images with its announcement on January 17 – one of Raisman, a three-time gold medalist, in a sexy black bikini and the other of Biles, a four-time gold medalist, doing a classic gymnastics pose in a black print bikini.
Photographer James Macari photographed the athletes at the North Houston Skate Park and the Lillie and Hughe Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden.
The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue is set to hit newsstands in February and is expected to further the modeling career of the two champion gymnasts.
Members of the Fierce Five and the Final Five
Aly Raisman is a two-time Olympian. She was a member and captain of both the 2012 “Fierce Five” and 2016 “Final Five” US women’s Olympic gymnastics which won their respective team competitions.
At the 2012 Olympics in London, she won gold medals in the team and floor competitions, as well as the bronze medal on the balance beam, making her the most decorated American gymnast at the Games.
At the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, she won a gold medal in the team event, making her and teammate Gabby Douglas the only Americans with back-to-back team golds. Raisman also won silver medals in the individual all-around and for floor exercise.
Raisman was also a member of the gold-winning American teams at the 2011 and 2015 World Championships.
Raisman was born in Needham, Massachusetts, to Lynn Faber, a former high school gymnast, and Rick Raisman. She has three younger siblings: Brett, Chloe, and Madison.
She began gymnastics when she was two years old. She attributes her initial love for the sport to the “Magnificent Seven,” the gold-medal-winning US women’s team at the 1996 Summer Olympics, whose performances she watched on VHS.
Simone Biles, on the other hand, is the 2016 Olympic individual all-around, vault and floor gold medalist.