This year's SI swimsuit edition cover model is ...

I received a "renewal offer" from SI about two years after my subscription lapsed. My final issue was the COVID empty stands cover - seemed about right.

Oh yeah - 20 year subscriber.

 

Martha is one of 28 women in the issue. Not much is going to move the needle as far as a single person.

A far cry from the 3 models and 8 photos during the "golden era" of SI.

 

Give me ONE cover model - or Kathy Ireland with someone else (I won't split hairs). I need to know whom I should be lusting after. Carol Alt, Cheryl Tiegs, Brinkley whomever....

 

Jeez, can't think of one or 6.

 

Everyone is playing for second place behind Kathy Ireland. What a sight for ninth-grade eyes back in the day. Or now.

 

Amen.

 

Elle Macpherson was the GOAT in my late 80s/early 90s era. There's a picture from, I think, the 25th anniversary edition of her and Kathy Ireland in a pool together (Elle is on her back and Kathy on her stomach, both wearing two-pieces and laying in a few inches of water) that to this day is in the running for greatest photograph ever taken.

Underrated: Stacey Williams. She came along and might have snagged a couple of covers in that 1991-94 range, right after the Big Three of Elle, Kathy and Rachel Hunter had left the swimsuit issue behind, and before Tyra Banks took over as the It Girl a few years later. It was the swimsuit version of the Rockets winning two championships after Jordan left to play baseball.

 

This shot of Kelly Emberg has stuck with me for decades ...

 

1. Elle
1a. Kathy

 

Carol Alt, SI swimsuit cover, 1982.

 

I repeat, everyone else is playing for second place. (Though I was in 10th grade for this, not ninth, we apologize for the error)