WNBA Star Te'a Cooper Shares Swimsuit Photo of “Swim Week”

WNBA star and free agent Te'a Cooper has clearly learned to love swimsuit photoshoots since appearing in Sports Illustrated. Cooper, 26, enjoyed some downtime by hitting the pool, and shared the photos on her Instagram. The athlete can be seen posing in the water in a vibrant red bikini, completing the look with a beautiful blue necklace and dark sunglasses, her hair pulled into a ponytail. “Te’a SWIM WEEK 💦🫶 @target,” she captioned the post. “My girly,” commented fellow player Angel Reese. Here’s how Cooper stays fit, beautiful, and on top.

1. Vegan Diet

Cooper cooks her own meals as much as possible. “I recently just tried going vegan for a few months and it was great,” she says. “I felt great. My body felt great. I had a lot of energy. It’s just refreshing. This past year, I just started cooking regularly. I cook breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, so I’m just now getting into that. I guess you can really tell the difference more if you aren’t an athlete, but I really did feel the effect of eating vegan foods in the off-season. Energy-wise, during the day, when I’m not doing anything and I’m not sleepy without practicing stuff, I think that’s when I felt the difference more. It’s a huge difference, honestly.”

2. Sports Illustrated Model

Cooper is a Sports Illustrated model, and while she was surprised to be asked to take part, she was thrilled in the end. Being with her fellow athletes at the shoot in St. Thomas helped make her feel more comfortable. “When I got the call, I initially [thought], ‘Did they call the right person?’” she joked.“It kind of felt like I was getting ready for a game. It was really comfortable. I was super excited to just be with them and see them be out of their element, too. They are so empowering. They just really make you comfortable in your own skin.”

3. Embrace the Roller Coaster

Shutterstock

Cooper believes in embracing the journey, both ups and downs. “Everything’s not always gonna be up — it’s a roller coaster,” she says. “Sports teaches you the beauty of the ups and downs… I think for mental health purposes, enjoy that roller coaster. So, you know, things happen, but it always has a way of working out. So no matter where I am in life, I just feel like it’s gonna work out. Unfortunate things happen, but it’s like I’ve been there before, been down before, so I’m gonna be up soon, and I just kind of stay humble and stay in the middle and just stay steady, honestly.”

4. Fashion Forward

Cooper loves how the WNBA players are becoming known for their fashion as well as their skills. “I took the game day ‘fits very seriously,” she says. “I would say embracing your own style and confidently walking in your own style [is important]. How you see yourself and what you put out there — the evolution of you and just seeing your style grow — I think is the most interesting aspect of it. I love fashion and I definitely want to be on a runway someday!

5. Self-Care Is Self-Love

For Cooper, self-care is about a healthy lifestyle. “I think really, a lot of things are mental,” she says. “People think eating healthy is like you’re on a diet or you’re trying to lose weight when really it can be a lifestyle. Like you just wanna be cleaner, you just wanna be healthier mentally, physically, emotionally, and some of that has to do with your food. I think just focusing on yourself and making sure you feel good is the best advice I can give. Everybody’s story is different and everybody’s emotions are different, so my advice won’t help somebody who’s not me—but just taking care of yourself could help everybody.”

Caitlin Clark is a superstar in women’s basketball. She first made waves in the 2023 and 2024 NCAA Tournament, as a member of the Iowa Hawkeyes team. Clark was the Division 1 leader in points and three-points, and broke a record in assists. Clark was the first pick in the WNBA draft, and currently plays for the Indiana Fever. She and her teammate, Lexi Hull, had a lake day, and Katie Lou Samuelson shared a photo of the two on her Instagram story. How does she stay so fit? Read on to see 5 ways Caitlin Clark stays in shape and the photos that prove they work.

1. She Plays Basketball

Caitlin Clark/Instagram

Naturally, basketball is the main way Clark stays in shape. Fitness Advisory states that the sport can strengthen your body. “Basketball requires you to jump while playing, as well as running back and forth multiple times. In a basketball game, you rely on your body positioning and the ability to maintain that position when an opponent is pushing against you. This is why playing basketball can strengthen all parts of your body, especially your core muscles, neck, lower back, and arms.”

2. She Swims

As you can see from the Instagram story, Clark likes to swim to stay in shape. Swimming.org states that the activity has a lot of benefits. “Swimming uses all the muscles in the body so whether you swim a gentle breaststroke or hammer butterfly, you will get a full body workout. Plus, exercising in water makes your body work harder so 30 minutes in a pool is worth 45 minutes of the same activity on land.”

2. She Plays Golf

Shutterstock

Clark loves to play golf. She talked about how she got into the sport and what she likes about it to Golf Digest. “Our coaches were like, ‘You need to get away from the gym,’ even though that’s really hard for me to do sometimes. I still want to be active and do something, so I’m going to go to the golf course. You can clear your mind, do something you really love, and have the peace and quiet of just your friends around or even just yourself. I love being able to escape reality for a little bit.”

4. She’s Working On Herself

Clark tells Golf Digest that she wants to get tougher in her sports. “Something I can always improve on is my mental toughness. You have one bad shot on the golf course or on the basketball court, you gotta move on to the next. Obviously in basketball, I have four other girls on the court with me that I can lean on if I’m not having a good day or shooting well. If I’m on the golf course, it’s all on me. You have to accept that not every day is gonna be great for you. That’s helped me by translating that to basketball.”

5. She’s Grateful

Clark is extremely grateful to the fans that supported her during the NCAA, and made sure to thank the fans after a game. “I think the people that have made it the most special, obviously my teammates, my coaches,” Clark said. “But it isn’t what it is without all of you I mean that and I thank you. This is special. I don’t know if you guys realize what you’re doing for women’s basketball and women’s sports in general, but you’re changing it. You’re helping us change it.”

WNBA star Te'a Cooper is gearing up for her strongest summer ever! The 26-year-old Los Angeles Sparks point guard shared a video of herself wearing black shorts and a matching tank top, going through an intense weight training workout at the gym. “Let’s turn the summer up ‼️💪 #beenonmygrind👑,” she captioned the post. “I love everything you are doing for women in sports, keep inspiring women all over the world! 🐐” a fan commented. Here’s how Cooper stays fit, focused, and on top of her game.

1. Solo Workouts

Cooper was forced to adjust her training schedule after getting injured at University of Tennessee. “I had to go to practice at, like, six in the morning by myself, and my dramatic self, I felt like I was all alone,” she told Slam Online. “I’m like, it was just me against the world. You know you play sad music to make you sadder? Jhene Aiko has a song called ‘W.A.Y.S.’ and I had it on repeat, walking through the gym, and I worked out by myself. You don’t have anybody to push you when you’re working out by yourself, but I had to run sprints by myself, like, who was I racing? I had to find that in myself and that was…ooh, it took me a minute to do that.”

2. Vegan Diet

Shutterstock

Cooper says going vegan for a few months positively impacted her energy levels. “A variety of vegan foods are rich in protein,” say the experts at Harvard Health. “They include soybean products (tofu, edamame, tempeh), seitan, lentils, beans or peas, nutritional yeast, spirulina, soy milk, cashew milk, nuts and seeds, nut and seed butters, veggie burgers, and meat alternatives.”

3. Sports Illustrated Model

Cooper is thrilled to have posed for Sports Illustrated. “When I got the call, I initially [thought], ‘Did they call the right person?’” she told the magazine. “It kind of felt like I was getting ready for a game. It was really comfortable. I was super excited to just be with them and see them be out of their element, too. They are so empowering. They just really make you comfortable in your own skin.”

4. Hair Entrepreneur

Cooper is proud to have her own hair brand called Hollywood Luxury Hair. “Anyone can sell hair, but I think making the customer experience personable and relatable is what sets us apart,” she told Femina Magazine. “We want people to feel like they are buying hair from someone they know and trust while knowing they will get a great product out of the experience.”

5. Acceptance and Growth

Cooper has a glass-half-full approach to life. “I think people think my life is so perfect because I never look defeated,” she told rolling out. “No matter what I’m going through, I’m always excited about what’s next. Something terrible could have happened, but I’m excited that I’m still alive to be able to learn from that and grow from it... Learn what you can control. Anything that you can’t control, just leave it alone.”

Olympic gold medal winner Katie Ledecky is doing what makes her happiest—spending time in the water. The champion swimmer, 26, shared a picture of herself posing in the pool, her aquamarine swimsuit the exact same color as the crystal clear pool water, and wearing a silver Olympics necklace to perfect her look. “I’ve always loved a good summer swim 💛☺️🏊🏻‍♀️,” she captioned the post. How does the athlete stay so strong and fit? Here are 5 ways Ledecky maintains her impressive physique, in season and out.

1. Swimming and Sundays Off

Ledecky trains incredibly hard, with Sunday being her only full day off. “On a hard day, I'll have two swim practices and a weight session,” she says. “I swim twice a day, four times a week and once a day, twice a week and then I have Sundays off. I swim nine to ten times a week and then three weight sessions per week. The only day that I don't train is Sundays so even right now when I'm taking a little bit of time off, I'm trying to stick to a pretty regular routine. So oatmeal for breakfast, some sort of egg sandwich for lunch, or eggs with toast and then dinner is what varies the most but it is either carbs or some sort of protein: chicken, steak, salmon, something along those lines.”

2. Training Diet

Shutterstock

Ledecky starts the day early, and enjoys food that fuel her workouts. “On a really busy day I would wake up around 5:30 a.m. and have some light breakfast, like oatmeal with a banana, and head to practice and do my swim practice,” she says. “Then have chocolate milk and maybe a banana or a granola bar. I then do my weights session and then have some sort of lunch, usually some eggs, maybe an egg sandwich. I usually have a pre-afternoon practice snack, some Greek yogurt with granola is a typical snack for me with some berries. Then I have afternoon practice from maybe 3-5 p.m., and then I'll come back home and make dinner, and maybe an evening snack, a little bit later as well.

3. Strength Training

Ledecky does deadlifts, squats, pull ups, and chin ups at the gym. "It's pretty full-body because that's what swimming is," she says. "I think core strength is incredibly important in swimming — it's that connecting piece between your arms and legs. So we work on strength and we work on power because you have to have that power coming out of the starting blocks and on all of the turns, as well as a good jump."

4. She’s a Napper

Ledecky says regular naps are an important part of her day. “Many people don’t realize this about me because I’m a professional athlete, but I love naps,” she says. “I’d say that athletes are probably the biggest nappers of all time. If I have the time during the day, I’ll definitely squeeze in a nap to recharge for the next workout. When I wake up, it’s usually lunchtime, and I’ll opt for something light and simple: a salad, sandwich or wrap with chicken and avocado. I definitely need protein throughout my day.”

5. Self-Care Before Competition

Ledecky and her teammates always shave before a competition. “Before racing and before a big meet, it's really important to make sure you're doing all the little things right and getting as much rest as you can,” she says. “A big thing for [my team] is the night before a competition starts, we all shave and so that's when I use my Bic Solei razor. We have a shaving party and we played cards, and after we did that of course we all get to bed super early. It's a lot of fun being with Team USA and we just keep things light.”