Drumroll, please … The cover of the 2016 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue was revealed during a live TV special on Saturday, February 13, and three women were chosen for this year’s honor — Ronda Rousey, Ashley Graham and Hailey Clauson.
It’s the first time the cover has been split between three models.
Nick Cannon and Rebecca Romijn hosted the TNT special, titled Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2016 Revealed, which featured a performance from Ne-Yo with DJs Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike. Elle Macpherson was presented with an honorary award for gracing the cover a record five times, with the most recent being in 2006.
The one-hour special featured more than 20 models including Chrissy Teigen, Gigi Hadid, Chanel Iman, Nina Agdal and Irina Shayk, and showed scenes from their bikini shoots in exotic locations like Tahiti, Zanzibar, Turks and Caicos and Malta.
Athletes Rousey, Lindsey Vonn and Caroline Wozniacki are also featured in the issue wearing nothing but body paint. “I didn’t have any hesitation at all,” cover girl Rousey said of stripping down.
As Us Weekly previously reported, plus-size model Graham is featured in the annual issue as one of its five rookies, while 56-year-old Nicola Griffin posed in a Swimsuits for All ad as the oldest person to ever appear in a swimsuit issue.
“It’s not all about being 20 and five-foot-ten. We’re bored of that!” Griffin told the Daily Mail on February 9. “We are all different ages and sizes and that’s the beauty of it. We’re real women.”
Last year, Derek Jeter’s fiancée and Project Runway: Junior host, Hannah Davis, covered the 2015 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue in a mesh bikini.
Tell Us what you think of the stunning cover shots!
