Supermodel Carolyn Murphy has been chosen to grace the cover of 2005's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, becoming the publication’s first all-American cover model of this century. The last US citizen to win the competitive spot was Rebecca Romijn in 1999. The cover photo, taken on Kamalane Cay in the Bahamas by fashion photographer Jeff Olson, features 31-year-old Murphy, a native of Panama City, in a tiny red bikini, making it hard to believe she is the mother of a 4-year-old daughter.

"I never thought I'd make the pages of Sports Illustrated, because I've always been skinny. But after I had my daughter, I had hips, I had boobs," says Murphy, who have previously appeared in SI’s Swimsuit Edition in 2004, but never on the cover of the magazine. "It takes some adjustment. My partner, he loves it, but it's something I had to embrace."

The new 5’9’’-tall SI cover model, who weighted 182 pounds during her pregnancy and got beck to her current 120 pounds within a year, says, "I'd like to reach out to more women and different body types."

According to USA Today, the hardest part of winning the cover for Murphy was having to keep the secret for 24 hours without telling even her boyfriend, Brandon Boyd of Incubus.

Carolyn Murphy has been the face of Estee Lauder, since replacing Elizabeth Hurley as the primary spokesperson in 2001. She was VH1/Vogue's "Model of the Year" in 1998, has graced the cover of Vogue's "Models of the Millennium" issue, posed for numerous fashion magazines and done campaigns for world-famous design houses like Prada, Versace, Gucci, and Dolce & Gabbana.

Other models featured in the issue include tennis star Venus Williams, Olympians Jennie Finch and Amanda Beard and 19-year-old Alicia Hall, winner of NBC's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model Search series.