Pro Lacrosse Player Alex Aust Holman Reflects on ‘Dream Come True’ SI Swimsuit Experience

The athlete was a finailst in the 2021 Swim Search open casting call.

Alex Aust Holman was photographed by Yu Tsai in Atlantic City. / Yu Tsai/Sports Illustrated

With SI Swimsuit’s 2025 Swim Search officially accepting applications as of today, many women are eagerly assembling their casting videos. Leading up to the big day, we’ve been checking in with past Swim Search winners and participants to get their insights on how the process helped them gain confidence, elevate their careers and more.

We recently had a chance to catch up with Alex Aust Holman, a 2021 Swim Search finalist and Women’s Lacrosse League athlete, who called her experience with SI Swimsuit a “dream come true.” As a finalist in that year’s Swim Search contest, the Virginia native posed for photographer Yu Tsai in Atlantic City.

“ I think that being an athlete and having that be my entire identity, there was always this feminine side in me that I was a little bit scared to feed or show and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit and MJ [Day, editor in chief] and the entire team just celebrate that side in women, that feminine urge to want to be confident and and be strong and powerful. So up until that point [in my life], there had never been anything like that for me,” Aust Holman says.

She describes the Swim Search process as inspiring, and one in which she felt incredibly empowered throughout. After making it through to the final round, Aust Holman recalls feeling nervous while initially posing in front of Yu Tsai’s lens in New Jersey. In order to tap into her power, she likened the experience to a lacrosse championship game, and credits Day with coaching her through how to nail her final shots in a blue one-piece swimsuit by INDAH.

Alex Aust Holman was photographed by Yu Tsai in Atlantic City, N.J. Swimsuit by INDAH. / Yu Tsai/Sports Illustrated

“MJ just looked me in the eyes and was like, this is my favorite one, you need to [nail] this, and it just like sparked something,” Aust Holman explains. “[She] was like a coach in that moment that was like, all right, like maybe you’ve taken a couple points off now, like you need to get your butt into gear. Those are my favorite photos of all of them ... [She] spoke to me like a coach and like an athlete, and I was like, all right, I can do this, let’s go, and I just got in the zone.”

Check out Aust Holman’s complete SI Swimsuit gallery here, and apply for the Sports Illustrated 2025 Swim Search open casting call here.

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