On March 24, Sports Illustrated named the winners of their first ever Swim Search. After a year-long journey, Camille Kostek and Haley Kalil, ended the search at Encore Beach Club as winners. The two will return next year as part of the rookies of Sport Illustrated Swimsuit 2019.
The two models are very thrilled and surprised after the announcement. Surely, they can’t wait to see what’s in store for the both of them. Camille, a crowd favourite, hopes that her win will become a new platform for her to encourage young women to love their bodies and to believe in their dreams. Haley Kalil is also eager to be part of this new endeavor. In an interview while doing the search, Haley expressed how she would love to keep doing this. She said, “this is stepping my foot into the world that I’ve always wanted to be in, I was just never really given the opportunity. Now that this door is open, I want to take it and run with it.”
Let’s get to know more these two SI rookies below.
Camille Kostek
You may have seen Camille Kostek in a cheerleading outfit before. That’s because she used to be one for New England Patriots. She hung up her dancing costume because she has always envisioned herself to be sporting bikinis for Sports Illustrated.
The 26-year old model admitted that she was kind of hesitant at first to making her profile public. However, it paved her way to getting into her dream shoot. She said: “Having an open profile and having a video that I could share with people that I know or didn’t know just from that public hashtag has literally changed my life.”
Camille Kostek’s Younger Years
Camille is #nevernotdancing. Even when she was young, she loved watching girls perform and dance. She particularly loved JLO. She has three siblings and spent most of her childhood in Killingworth, Connecticut.
Her passion to touch young women comes from being an older sister to her siblings. She shares, “Being an older sister and having been a young woman, it’s super cool for these women to reach out and share their insecurities or something that they want advice on and kind of being able to be their inspiration. That’s like the most fulfilling thing to ever hear.”
She Loves Acting Too
Aside from being a dancer, Camille also loves acting. You may have seen her in two big feature films last year. One is with Amy Schumer and another with Denzel Washington.
“I have always wanted to kind of step into the acting world, but I’ve have never taken acting classes, so it was really super risky. Every time I walked into a casting I kind of used that as my acting class to practice being on tape and picking up a new script and trying out these different personalities,” she shared.
Dancing, Acting, and Modelling! We can’t wait to see what Camille has to offer more!
Haley Kalil
Being in the spotlight isn’t new for Haley. You may remember her as former Miss Minnesota 2014 or may have been seated next to her at the sidelines of Bank of America Stadium when she cheers for her husband football offensive tackle, Matt Kalil.
Despite that, becoming a public person is something new to her. She only started with 2k followers on her Instagram but when she joined SI Swim Search, this number went up to 25k. Woaah! We know it will only keep increasing especially now that she’s named one of the winners.
In her interview last year, she opened up about the changes in her social media. “I have a lot brands that have started reaching out to me, which is weird for me. One of my favorite bands from high school is filming a music video and I’ll be in the music video in April. Before this, I would have never gotten an offer like that, ever.”
How She Feels About Her Shoot in Belize
Haley had never modeled in her entire life and has never even worn such skimpy bikinis, but looking at her photos, she seems to be a pro! How did she do that?
She said, “Because it was Sports Illustrated and because I was shooting Yu Tsai, it’s just so comfortable and it’s so natural to embrace who you are as a woman and your sex appeal. It really just came naturally to me. I didn’t feel forced, I didn’t feel uncomfortable. It was just kind of like this amazing transition where it just felt like ‘this is the moment that I’m supposed to be sexy’ and I took that moment and ran with it and loved every part of it.”
Support From Family and Friends
The support she gets from her family is also overwhelming. They know that Haley wanted this, so they have been following her journey. Even her husband’s teammates are cheering her on too.
“Everyone’s been really supportive. Aside from my grandma seeing the initial photos that I posted, no one has been like ‘Oh, look at you in these outfits.’ They’ve all been extremely supportive including my husband and his teammates.”
Now, that’s she’s finally holding that dream, she’ll be getting support not just from her family and friends, but her fans too!