Meet Your Cover Model: Jordan Chiles Embraces Her Beauty With SI Swimsuit

Posing at The Boca Raton for her debut shoot, the Olympic gymnast captivated the camera.

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Winning is in Jordan Chiles’s DNA. Named to the USA senior national team in 2017—and making her Olympic debut at age 20—the gymnast’s early adulthood has been defined by success in the spotlight.

After earning a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics with Team USA last summer, Chiles went right back to work, publishing a memoir of her athletic career—titled I’m That Girl—in March and winning the NCAA uneven bars championships in April.

Now, the impressive athlete is taking her talents to the front of a camera lens, earning her first SI Swimsuit cover in her debut with the magazine.

Jordan Chiles was photographed by Ben Horton at The Boca Raton. / Ben Horton/Sports Illustrated

For her 2025 SI Swimsuit Issue cover, Chiles was photographed by Ben Horton at The Boca Raton in Florida, sporting a brown halter-neck swimsuit from Bad N Bare.

While on set—she didn’t know the shoot would land her on the cover—Chiles discussed her gymnastics career and the advice she would give to young athletes.

“I think the biggest thing that people misconceive is really knowing what gymnastics is, and they don’t understand how hard our sport is,” Chiles shared. “It’s definitely something that is hard on your body. As gymnasts, we have more of an impostor syndrome than a lot of people just in the real world. Being [on] the pro side, the athlete side and a businesswoman—it’s a lot. It is very time-consuming, but I’m very thankful for it.”

View Jordan Chiles’s full 2025 SI Swimsuit gallery here.

For the 24-year-old, getting the opportunity to pose for SI Swimsuit and celebrate all the work she’s put into being the best version of herself is “a dream come true.”

“The biggest thing I want people to take away [from the photo shoot] is understanding that my body is my body and that I have the ability to express it in millions of different ways and people are going to accept that,” she said. “It’s really cool just being able to finally embrace my beauty in the way I can, so hopefully people can see the beauty inside of me and that they understand that this is a dream come true for me.”

Jordan Chiles was photographed by Ben Horton at The Boca Raton. Swimsuit by I.AM.GIA. / Ben Horton/Sports Illustrated

SI Swimsuit editor in chief MJ Day surprised Chiles with her cover ahead of the issue’s release, making for an incredibly heartfelt moment that had the gymnast in tears. “Your girl—that girl—is on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2025,” Chiles proudly announced while holding the incredible photo.

“Jordan Chiles’s why is written in every comeback, every leap, every time she shows up for herself and her team,” Day wrote in the issue. “Resilience is her trademark, and it’s why she stands as a symbol of strength—not just physical, but emotional. Jordan is showing us all that perseverance and joy can coexist in powerful ways.”

Chiles joins Salma Hayek Pinault, Lauren Chan and Olivia Dunne as cover models for the 2025 issue, each also debuting their first covers with the franchise. Chan and Dunne each appeared in the magazine the last two years (2023 and 2024). Like Chiles, Hayek Pinault makes her first appearance for the brand this year.