Swimsuit

8 Gorgeous Photos From Brenna Huckaby’s Historic SI Swimsuit Photoshoot

The three-time Paralympic gold medalist posed for the magazine in Aruba.

Cara O’Bleness

Brenna Huckaby

Brenna Huckaby was photographed by James Macari in Aruba.

When Brenna Huckaby posed for the 2018 SI Swimsuit Issue, she made history as the first Paralympian to be featured in the annual magazine, an opportunity that she referred to as “insane”—in the best way possible.

“I am the first Paralympian to be shot for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition, and that is insane to me...,” she said of her photoshoot in Aruba. “So I’m just overwhelmed with such positive emotion over it, because I knew this day would come, but I didn’t think that I would be the one to make this day happen. It’s made me more confident in myself and... it’s made me more motivated and able to help empower and inspire any woman or male that is in these situations.”

Huckaby, 27, had her right leg amputated above the knee at the age of 14 after being diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer called osteosarcoma. The former gymnast turned to snowboarding as part of her rehabilitation exercises and quickly fell in love with the sport. Today, she is a three-time Paralympic gold medalist, proud mom of two and host of the Gold Medal Mindset podcast.

A body positivity and self-love advocate, Huckaby often shares inspirational content with her 115,000 Instagram followers, encouraging her fans to love their bodies just as they are. It’s a notion the athlete practices in her own day-to-day life.

“I bought into this narrative that my body needed to be a certain way so that I could be worthy or enough, deserving of anything in my life,” she told Tonal last year. “And the second I decided to take a refund on that, and say ‘I don’t accept this. I don’t want this,’ was the moment that I started to see myself as more than just my body.”

Below are a few of our favorite snapshots James Macari captured of Huckaby in Aruba.

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Cara O’Bleness
CARA O’BLENESS

Cara O’Bleness is a writer and editor on the Lifestyle and Trending News team for SI Swimsuit. Prior to joining SI Swimsuit in 2022, she worked as a writer and editor across a number of content verticals, including food, lifestyle, health and wellness, and small business and entrepreneurship. In her free time, O’Bleness loves reading, spending time with her family and making her way through Michigan’s many microbreweries. She is a graduate of Michigan State University’s School of Journalism.

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