Hailey Van Lith went through quite the college basketball journey. Van Lith attended three schools in her five-year college basketball career and ended up being a first-round pick by the Chicago Sky in the 2025 WNBA Draft. After spending three seasons at Louisville, Van Lith transferred to LSU for one season and finished her college career at TCU for her final season.
Back in April, Van Lith was a cover model for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit alongside two other Big 12 champion athletes, UCF's Rayniah Jones and Colorado's Phoenix Dawn Miranda, for the digital issue. Van Lith had never been on the cover before.
However, in SI's latest release, Van Lith donned the cover of the physical cover released today for the month of May.
The 2025 SI Swimsuit issue will spotlight Big 12 athletes Hailey Van Lith, Rayniah Jones and Phoenix Dawn Miranda, and fans are already obsessed!https://t.co/l93jy8LFNp
— Sports Illustrated Swimsuit (@SI_Swimsuit) May 10, 2025
Van Lith helped take TCU, a team that had to have open tryouts in the middle of their season during the 2023-2024 season, when they didn't have enough healthy players due to injury, to the Elite Eight. The Horned Frogs became one of the toughest teams to beat in the NCAA Tournament, and it wasn't even the start of it all for Van Lith. Back in the summer of 2024, Van Lith won a bronze medal in 3x3 basketball for Team USA.
The now WNBA rookie had ended her incredible college career as a model for SI Swimsuit. When asked how she would define the evolution of beauty and her answer is something that should empower every female, athlete or not.
"Growing up, you always see like, hyper-feminine, very small, very slender women as the most beautiful and like that's what your goal is to look like, but as I've grown up and, you know, figured out who I am through sports and other things in life, finding my balance between being feminine and also bringing in my masculine side and flowing through that, I think that that's kind of where I define beauty now," Van Lith said in her interview.
Now with the Chicago Sky, Van Lith is looking to extend her basketball career and make her mark on the future of women's sports.