Say Hello to the 2022 Swim Search Finalists

The impressive group of women includes an astronaut, a nurse, professional athletes, lawyers and more.

Out of thousands of submissions, 13 women have been selected to participate in a photo shoot in the Dominican Republic this week as finalists in the 2022 SI Swim Search program. The group will work with photographer Yu Tsai at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Punta Cana with a chance to be Rookie in the 2023 SI Swimsuit Issue on the line.

What is SI Swim Search?

SI Swim Search is the annual casting call which provides opportunities for both aspiring and established models to meet with the SI Swimsuit team in the hopes of being featured in the next edition of the iconic issue.

For anybody still interested in the opportunity to be featured in the 2023 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, there are still opportunities to get involved in Swim Search via The Swimfluence Network. 

Meet Our 2022 Finalists

This group of women is emblematic of SI Swimsuit’s values and all the finalists inspire action throughout their communities. Read on to meet the full list of 2022 SI Swimsuit Swim Search finalists.

Byrd hails from the small town of Amite, La., by way of Greensburg, La. She is a first-generation college graduate, with a degree in Criminal Justice from Southern University, where she played basketball for the Jaguars. She also holds a Masters in Public Administration. After several career changes, including a stint as a construction worker, she finally decided to pursue her dream as a model and moved to Los Angeles to pursue modeling full-time.

Callingbull is a Cree First Nations woman from the Enoch Cree Nation in the province of Alberta, Canada. She is devoted to her culture and people, demonstrated through her volunteer work with community Elders and aboriginal youth. Callingbull is an actress, motivational speaker, model, jingle dress dancer and First Nation’s activist who was named Mrs. Universe 2015. She was honored with a role model award from the United Nations on Global Dignity Day in October 2015.

A Northern California native, Dorsey is a host, YouTube personality and model. Since moving to Los Angeles to earn her degree in Communication Studies and Journalism from Loyola Marymount, she’s been a host for Hearst Media’s Clevver Style and Uproxx’s/WMX’s Wom/n Worldwide and Culture Quick Bites.

Robinson is a GenZ thought leader in the chronic illness and mental health advocacy space. She is the founder of Its Gigi LLC, a creative media company focused on ethical partnerships, and a podcast host of the Spotify Greenroom live audio show Everything You Need Is Within. After struggling with several chronic illnesses for over a decade, she was determined to make a career out of advocating for the community of people living with invisible illness at-large. A USC grad, Robinson has been globally recognized for her strategies around social media literacy while simultaneously growing her online communities across platforms amassing over 150K total. 

Fields was named after Hilary Clinton and Maya Angelou, and was born in Arcadia, Fla. She received a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing from Florida A&M and currently works as an ICU travel nurse, based out of Los Angeles. During the pandemic she noticed how burnt out travel nurses were feeling. As a result, she developed SBAR App, an application that allows nurses to review and rate travel assignments and the hospitals where they’ve worked.

Crump, based in London for the last 10 years, is a breast cancer survivor. She was diagnosed with cancer at 38 with no family history after discovering a lump while itching her chest. She has gone through six surgeries to date and 60 rounds of chemotherapy. In 2019 the cancer spread to other areas of her body including her neck, lung, armpit, ribs and spine. She started sharing her take on cancer and what she was experiencing on Instagram, resonating with so many people that she has grown a dedicated following over the past year.

Hintsa, born in Finland, is a professional high-altitude climber and endurance athlete. She spent much of her childhood in Ethiopia. She lives a nomadic lifestyle, having traveled to the highest mountain ranges of the world. Her dreams and goals are to push human limits and to explore new routes and climb mountains that have never been climbed before. She tries to give back by sharing her stories and encouraging people to become more inwardly resilient.

Dewey is the co-founder of Herd Social, a lifestyle and tech content creator on TikTok, and the co-host of the Socially Well podcast. After graduating from Chapman University, Dewey started her career in big tech and quickly found her passion for creating content on the side. During the pandemic, she recognized the negative impacts social media was having on her mental health and body image. She left big tech and created Herd, a pressure-free photo-sharing platform for GenZ women and non-binary people. 

Bangalore is a physicist, actor and the founder of two nonprofits. She received her Bachelor of Science in physics from the University of Oregon with a minor in math. During her undergraduate career, she worked at two NASA centers, Marshall Space Flight Center and Johnson Space Center, on propulsion and the cockpit displays for the Orion spacecraft. She has dreamed of becoming an astronaut since she was 4 years old. She founded Operation Period, a youth-led, all-volunteer menstrual health nonprofit in 2015. To date, the organization has provided more than 200,000 menstrual products to those in need. In 2020, she founded a second nonprofit, Painting With Parkinson's, to provide free painting kits and art classes to those affected by Parkinson’s in honor of her father who has been battling the disease for over a decade.

Steffen, from Argentina, is a self-proclaimed clumsy, outgoing and persevering person who wants to travel the world. She likes to think of herself as a simple cat lover who enjoys walking around town with a coffee mug on hand. A former lawyer who left her practice to pursue modeling, she continues to utilize her legal knowledge, working to help models create strong contracts and offering them legal advice.

Petrie, who grew up in Lake Geneva, Wisc., is currently a full-time model and caregiver for her mother, who suffers from FTD (Frontal Temporal Degeneration). Petrie graduated with her Bachelor's in Psychology, after playing collegiate volleyball, and began her career in modeling around the same time as her mother's diagnosis. She advocates for awareness around FTD as well as providing a voice for caregivers.

Nance is an astrophysicist and National Science Foundation graduate research fellow at Cal, where she researches exploding stars (supernovae) and the evolution of the universe. She is also an analog astronaut and recently completed a Mars astronaut simulation. Her goal is to bring the magic of the universe to the world. She’s a frequent on-air science expert and the author of the children’s book Little Leonardo’s Fascinating World of Astronomy. Her memoir, STARSTRUCK, is due to be published next year by Penguin Random House. Nance is a fervent women’s health advocate and regularly speaks on the importance of genetic testing, self-checks and preventative medicine. She was inspired to do this work after being diagnosed with the cancer-causing BRCA2 genetic mutation and opting for a preventive double mastectomy when she was 26.

Vesce was born and raised on a buffalo farm in Eastern North Carolina. She majored in Journalism at NC State. While in college, she was a member of the Charlotte Hornets dance team. During her third year dancing while studying for the LSAT, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor, losing half of her hearing instantly. After her treatments, she enrolled in law school in Charleston part-time while still pursuing a modeling career. She completed her studies and now works with Berman Law Group in Boca Raton, FL and is an advocate not only for the National Brain Tumor Society and the hard of hearing, but also grief support.