When tennis star Caroline Wozniacki was invited to pose for this year’s Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, there was no doubt in her mind she would accept. It was just last year that Wozniacki made her debut in the magazine’s annual swimsuit issue and she has since expressed her love for the experience. To Wozniacki, the photos are a healthy way to portray women and female athletes.
“Very few women get asked to be in the swimsuit issue, and I’m really proud to be one of so many beautiful and empowering women,” Wozniacki said Tuesday in a phone interview with The Washington Post. “Obviously, this year’s shoot was focusing very much on healthy bodies and different body types and I’m proud to be one of those.”
Posing in nothing but several layers of body paint, Wozniacki, the 19th-ranked women’s tennis player, is one of several female athletes in the issue that was released Monday. Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn makes her first appearance since 2010 and former UFC bantamweight champion/actress Ronda Rousey is on one of the issue’s three covers. Another cover model is Ashley Graham, who made history by being the first plus-size model to land on the magazine’s cover.
Wozniacki, 25, was thrilled to be a part of the groundbreaking issue.
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“I think it just shows to be proud of what you have,” she said. “Whether you’re tall or shorter, or a little bigger, more curves, skinny – you just have to be proud of what you have, and everyone is beautiful.”
Heading into the photo shoot this year at Petit St. Vincent, an island in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Wozniacki thought she would be able lie down and sleep through the body paint process. Instead, she ended up standing for at least five or six hours before she was allowed to lie on a table.
In a borderline NSFW behind-the-scenes video with Sports Illustrated, a camera crew follows Wozniacki as she starts the body paint process around 11 p.m. local time and finishes the next day at 2:30 p.m.
“It’s amazing,” she said of the photo shoot that took over 15 hours to complete. “[The Sports Illustrated team] makes you feel great. It’s a fun shoot. It’s a beautiful location. It’s warm. It’s nice. There are a lot of things to love about the shoot.”
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The presence of only body paint and no actual swimsuit is sure to draw headlines as the swimsuit issue edges closer and closer to actual nudity. But criticism for the issue is nothing new. The magazine has pushed the boundaries of what is “too far” several times before.
And although Wozniacki felt naked at first, she became comfortable after taking a look in the mirror, she explains in the video. For Wozniacki, the opportunity has been positive and one that she hopes to continue for as long as she can.
“I mean, if I get invited, I’ll do it any year. Every year,” she said.
This post, originally published Monday, has been updated to include quotes from the phone interview with Wozniacki.
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