Tunde Oyeneyin, SI Swimsuit’s First 2026 Rookie, Shares Goals for Her Brand Debut

The 2025 Swim Search winner also reflects on finding out she won the magazine’s open casting call.

Tunde Oyeneyin / Michael Loccisano/Getty Images

In case you missed the announcement earlier this month, Tunde Oyeneyin is officially our 2025 Swim Search winner! The fitness instructor was surprised while teaching a live Peloton class on Aug. 10, where Swim Search alum Achieng Agutu personally delivered the news.

Surrounded by Oyeneyin’s Peloton community, including friend and fellow instructor Kirsten Ferguson, Agutu declared: “Everybody say Tunde! This is a very special day. You are love, you are life, you are the most amazing person I have met, and it brings me so much joy to share that you are the 2025 Swim Search winner.”

Reflections on Oyeneyin’s winning moment

We recently had the opportunity to catch up with Oyeneyin, who will make her rookie appearance in the 2026 SI Swimsuit Issue, to get her reflections on the life-changing moment, which definitely took the 39-year-old by surprise.

“ I thought there was a fire happening,” Oyeneyin quips. “... Then I realized that everybody’s happy and so I think to myself, ‘Oh my God,’ I say out loud to myself, ’Is it my birthday?’ And then I’m wondering why they’re throwing me such an early birthday party. And then once I saw Achieng, I knew what it was.”

Oyeneyin and Agutu bonded while walking the SI Swimsuit Runway together during Swim Week, and the fitness instructor says receiving the news from her friend, while being surrounded by her Peloton family, made the moment even more special.

“ Achieng was one of the girls that I formed just a really great connection with, just like a really great love at first sight bond with, and so to have her there in that moment with me [was incredible]. She knows what that moment is and she knows what it means and what it feels like because she’s experienced it too,” Oyeneyin explains. “To have the love of the members that were taking my class, to have the love of my teammates and then to have her love in that moment, it was really surreal and pretty perfect.”

Oyeneyin’s rookie year mindset

As she looks ahead to her magazine debut with the brand, Oyeneyin says the fact that she is an SI Swimsuit model is still sinking in. As for her goals for her 2026 SI Swimsuit Issue rookie year, Oyeneyin hopes to be present and remain in full gratitude throughout the experience.

“When you are present, everything else falls into place,” she says. “When you’re present, you’re in full gratitude. When you’re present, you remember the moment because you weren’t thinking about other things. Your mind wasn’t racing, you weren’t anywhere but in that moment. And so I think if I can focus on allowing myself to be present, then I then allow myself to fully receive everything that this experience has to offer.”

Building confidence through the Swim Search

Named a 2025 Swim Search finalist in May of this year, Oyeneyin had the opportunity to strut the runway during Miami Swim Week alongside the competition’s five other finalists, as well as brand regulars and a few special guests.

The New York Times best-selling author, who published her book, Speak: Find Your Voice, Trust Your Gut, and Get From Where You Are to Where You Want To Be, in 2022, is a motivational leader who has used her past struggle with body image to speak directly to those who similarly experience self-doubt. In fact, it was the little girl inside of her that caused her to throw her hat in the ring for the Swim Search in the first place.

“ When I was younger, I was overweight and I was made fun of,” Oyeneyin shares. “ ... I’ve never felt comfortable in a swimsuit. I always wore a baggy T-shirt to the pool. Whenever I ditched the baggy T-shirt, I was just always hesitant to get into the water because I just didn’t want people to see me and see my full self out there ... I’ve always been timid and I don’t know, there’s a part of me that said, well, what if I do it for the boxier, more athletic girls like me?”

Oyeneyin has found self-love and empowerment through her fitness career, but is open about still not quite feeling comfortable in a swimsuit today. She’s also been candid about gaining self-confidence through the Swim Search experience and walking the runway during Swim Week in particular.

 “ ... Once you strut down a Sports Illustrated [Swimsuit] runway in front of the entire world, I don’t know that there’s physically any limitations that exist anymore,” Oyeneyin says of her growing confidence. “My energy and my confidence in myself and the way that I show up in my body, it feels different. I’m so happy and I’m so proud of myself for, in many ways, putting myself on display in that way. Like, I’ve already done the ultimate scary thing. Everything else just kind of feels easy now as it as it relates to just like putting yourself out there in your full body.”

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