Suni Lee, star athletes dazzle in Sports Illustrated swimsuit photo shoot at The Boca Raton
Not only is The Boca Raton a private, five-star beach club, hotel and resort that draws visitors from across the globe to enjoy South Florida's sun and sea, it is now also a proven backdrop for eye-popping beauty of another sort — the type featured within the pages of Sports Illustrated.
The magazine's iconic swimsuit issue just launched, featuring Olympic medalists Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles, Gabby Thomas, among others — all posing at the Beach Club, a private beach on The Boca Raton property.
It's the second time the issue has used Palm Beach County as a backdrop for its swimsuit edition. The magazine featured professional race car driver Danica Patrick in a white bikini on Singer Island's hardpacked beach sand for its 2008 issue.
The Sunshine State has proven a popular destination for Sports Illustrated's annual tome. Florida has served as the magazine's swimsuit model playground in multiple years, including the 1981 (Christie Brinkley in Captiva, Florida on the cover), 1991, 1993, 1994, 2003, 2012, 2014 and 2015 editions.
This year, Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue, which appears on newsstands Saturday, May 17, also takes its models to Jamaica, Bermuda, Jalisco, Mexico and Switzerland.
Chiles was selected as one of the magazine's four cover models along with actress / producer Salma Hayek Pinault, gymnast / social media influencer Olivia Dunn and model Lauren Chan. Chiles' cover shot was taken in Boca Raton.
Photographer Ben Horton, whose resume also includes being a National Geographic explorer and photographer, headed to The Boca Raton for Sports Illustrated to photograph with these renowned athletes: Lee, Chiles, Thomas, Eileen Gu, Nelly Korda, Caroline Marks, Ali Truwit and Toni Breidinger. The women began teasing their SI swimsuit features on social media in November.
Here's a closer look at the eight athletes:
Suni Lee: American 2020 Olympic all-around gold medalist and uneven bars bronze medalist and the 2024 Olympic all-around and uneven bars bronze medalist.
Jordan Chiles: A member of the U.S. gold-medal winning gymnastics team at the 2024 Summer Olympics, who also was part of the silver medal-winning team in 2020.
Gabby Thomas: American track and field athlete specializing in the 100 and 200-meter sprint who won the 200 gold medal in the 2024 Olympics.
Eileen Gu: Born in the United States, the skier competed for China in halfpipe, slopestyle and big air freestyle competitions. At age 18, she won gold medals in big air and halfpipe and a silver in slopestyle at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Nelly Korda: From Bradenton, Korda plays on the LPGA Tour, where she has won 14 times and reached No. 1 in the world golf rankings. She won the individual gold medal at 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Caroline Marks: Born in Boca Raton, the world champion surfer returned to Palm Beach County for the iconic photo shoot. She is the 2023 World Surf League champion and also won a gold medal at the 2024 Olympics.
Ali Truwit: American Paralympic swimmer who set an American record in the 100m S10 backstroke at the Paralympic trials in 2024. She represented the U.S. in the 2024 Summer Paralympics.
Toni Breidinger: American professional stock car racing driver. She competes full-time in the NASCAR Truck Series, driving the No. 5 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for Tricon Garage. Born into Lebanese and German descent, she is the first Arab-American female to compete in NASCAR.
The resort is approaching its 100-year anniversary, originally opening in 1926 as a 100-room hotel called the Ritz-Carlton Cloister Inn by famous city planner and architect Addison Mizner. After numerous name and management changes, it became The Boca Raton as we know it today in July 2021.
Mizner's iconic Spanish architecture stood out to Sports Illustrated Swimsuit's location scouts.
"The Boca Raton blends timeless elegance with breathtaking coastal scenery — every corner is a perfect backdrop for capturing unforgettable photos," said MJ Day, the editor-in-chief of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit.
The resort, which includes five hotels and spans across South Federal Highway from East Camino Real to East Royal Palm Road, closed its Beach Club in April 2024 for a complete revamp. It opened back up in January with $120 million in renovations.
As part of the remodel, Beach Club's Mediterranean restaurant, Marisol, shifted to having both indoor and outdoor seating.
Some new dining options also made their debut: Onda, a specialty oceanside restaurant that spotlights new chefs each winter; Living Room, a café-by-day and cocktail lounge-by-night; White Bar, a creative cocktail and wine bar; and Ocean Market, which offers gourmet bites and ice cream.
The annual issue has a history of immense popularity along with controversy since it first published in 1964.
It traditionally published every February, but changed to a May publication date in 2019.
The sports magazine made the decision to have a "swimsuit issue" to help give readers some sun and skin during the winter months after football season. The first issue, written by reporter Jule Campbell, featured model Babette March.
During the late 1970s and 80s as the issue became even more risque, letters from readers cancelling subscriptions became almost as popular as the issue itself. But the subscriptions outweighed the cancellations and by 1997, the swimsuit issue became a stand-alone edition, separate from the weekly sports magazine.
Those who have graced the cover include Cheryl Tiegs, Christie Brinkley, Paulina Porizkova, Elle Macpherson, Rachel Hunter, Rebecca Romijn, Heidi Klum, Kathy Ireland, Marisa Miller and Tyra Banks.
Female athletes began appearing in the magazine as far back as 1997 when Steffi Graf was in the magazine. Other athletes to appear include Palm Beach Gardens' Serena Williams and Venus Williams, as well as Ronda Rousey, Anna Kournikova, Amanda Beard, Jennie Finch, Caroline Wozniacki, Alex Morgan and Naomi Osaka.
For the 2010 issue, four female Winter Olympians appeared: Clair Bidez, Lacy Schnoor, Hannah Teter and Lindsey Vonn.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Suni Lee dazzles in Sports Illustrated swimsuit photo shoot in Boca Raton
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