A preview of SI’s great American thong book

The babe bible is back!

The 2020 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue — with photo shoots completed prepandemic — drops on July 21, but the mag is sharing some of its sexy shots now.

Among the beauties gracing the glossy pages is former Miss Universe Olivia Culpo, who has been shacked up with Carolina Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey and his family in Colorado during the coronavirus lockdown.

“This is still so exciting for me,” the 28-yearold social-media influencer told The Post of scoring a spot in the mag for the third year in a row. “I created a vision board years ago to get into the magazine.”

Her devotion runs deep: She stuck to a “lowcarb, high-protein and high-fiber” diet to bring her best to this year’s shoots.

The brunette bombshell is joined by more than a dozen other models, including 28-yearold Jasmine Sanders, known as “@goldenbarbie” among her 3.9 million Instagram followers, and Canadian-born Kate Bock, 27, an eightyear veteran of the Swimsuit Issue and longtime girlfriend of Cleveland Cavaliers player Kevin Love.

Although it may look fabulous, Culpo revealed that sexing it up on the beach isn’t always glamorous.

“My knees were bleeding from the rocks, and I was being taken out by waves,” Culpo, who boasts 4.6 million followers on Instagram, said of the marathon shooting days in Bali with longtime SI photographer Yu Tsai.

“We have to wake up at 4 a.m. to get the right light, and we shoot until the sun goes down.”

As for the slinky swimwear Culpo modeled for this year’s glam glossy? It’s almost too sexy to show off.

Said the star, “Some of these bikinis you couldn’t really wear in public.”