When Sophie Cunningham, Napheesa Collier and Melissa Jefferson-Wooden touched down in the Fort Myers, Fla., area for their 2026 SI Swimsuit Issue photo shoots, they each had their game face on.
Cunningham, a guard for the Indiana Fever, called her time on set with photographer Katherine Goguen “one of the most empowering things” that she has ever done, noting that she was surprised by how confident she felt from the inside out while in front of the camera.
“I didn’t know how actually empowering internally that this was going to be for me,” Cunningham said. “But after that photo shoot, it’s like, ‘Wow, I wish every little girl and every little boy could just feel what that felt like.’ I feel so confident, I feel so beautiful, I feel so amazing in my own skin and what my body has to offer and … I just felt so good just to be myself.”…