Sexy at 58
Hey, SI! Make me a swimsuit model
Sure, she’s pushing 60 — but a Connecticut mom and fitness fanatic who’s vying to become a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model says she feels as sexy as ever.
“I already feel like I won,” Jodi Harrison-Bauer, 58, told The Post after competing in a casting call on Friday in Miami.
“It was really cool,” she said of meeting her competition at the W South Beach hotel — several hundred other aspiring models, most of them in their early 20s.
“I started standing in line at 6 o’clock this morning, hungry and in the pouring rain,” said the mom of two adult daughters. “But I met a lot of really wonderful young girls.”
As the owner of a boutique fitness studio in Branford, Harrison-Bauer devotes 10 hours a week to resistance training, weightlifting and cardio training.
And as a two-time World Fitness America and World Fitness Universe champion, she is also no stranger to competition.
So when she saw Sports Illustrated’s open casting call notice — and realized it made no mention of age limits — she wondered if she should give it a whirl.
Ultimately, it was her daughters who convinced Harrison-Bauer that her age, background and knockout looks would wow the judges.
“How did I let my kids talk me into this?” she joked. “But really, I then said, ‘OK, my purpose is to lend a voice to women who are over 55 and not just to become a Sports Illustrated bikini model, but also a role model.’ ”
And her daughters couldn’t be more proud.
“My mom has always said it doesn’t matter how old you are, you can still be sexy,” said Elyssa Harrison, 30, who accompanied her mother to the casting call. “People either get jealous of her or react in a weird way, but I couldn’t be more proud of her and to be a part of her journey, even if it were to end today.”
Harrison-Bauer wouldn’t be the oldest woman to grace the issue — Christie Brinkley was 63 when she wore a bikini for the 2017 edition.
But she would be the oldest selected from an open casting call. It’s too early to tell if she will make the cut for the magazine’s 2020 issue.
“The way they left it, they said, ‘We’ll call you,’ ” she said.
Still, Harrison-Bauer, who gotot married last month after a divorce 177 years ago, says she now feels like a certified supermodel.
“It’s been such an amazing experience and journey. I put myself out there and I’m passionate about including women of all ages,” she told The Post. “I feel like a winner already; being selected would bee the icing on the cake.”