NEED TO KNOW
Katie Austin is preparing for her sixth year hitting the runway in Sports Illustrated Swim Week’s runway show
Austin, 32, will be strutting her stuff while six months pregnant with her first baby
Austin married husband Lane Armstrong in May 2024
Katie Austin is getting to work the runway, with her baby bump leading the way.
The model and fitness influencer, 32, is preparing to walk in Sports Illustrated Swim Week’s runway show. While it’s her sixth time hitting the runway for SI Swim, this year is extra special for Austin as she’s walking while six months pregnant with her first baby.
Speaking with PEOPLE about her pregnancy journey and getting ready for the runway, Austin is happy to report she’s feeling better than she did in her first trimester.
“The first trimester was brutal. I did not feel like myself. I felt very alone, to be quite frank,” she says, noting that she was experiencing morning sickness “24/7.”
“There was all-day long sickness. I didn’t love the foods I usually love. Didn’t love coffee, didn’t feel like working out. But at the same time, finding those 10 to 15 minutes just to try to feel like myself was really beneficial.”
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The younger of fitness icon Denise Austin’s two daughters, she admits she’s felt an “identity shift” while managing her changing body.
“My business is run on feeling good and wellness and loving your body. And obviously, with those changes with pregnancy, especially as a first-time pregnant girl, it was very new to me to have a changing body. My body, to me, changed very fast.”
Austin, founder of The KA App, notes that she had to completely reconsider the routine she’s meticulously developed over the years as she weathered the changes.
“I’m kind of type A when it comes to my routine and what I like. I’ve taken years to figure out what I like and don’t like, and what makes me happy and what brings me joy. And so I feel like when the normal things weren’t working, or I didn’t want to do them, it took me a while to be like, ‘Okay, you can’t plan for s–t,’ ” she tells PEOPLE.
“This is not something where you can wake up and be like, ‘I’m going to feel amazing today,’ or next week, or the following week, or know what your body is going to want or look like in a week, in two weeks, in a month. You can’t plan for anything. I think that has been the hardest part and kind of humbling me, if you will.”
Before modeling and her own fitness endeavors, Austin was a Division I lacrosse player and a soccer player during her time at the University of Southern California. Combined with her background, it made for a continued devotion to fitness after her college career ended.
“The last decade, I’ve been kind of pushing my body, and even in the days I don’t feel like working out, I don’t really have as much grace for myself, but now I have to have a lot of grace for myself. What I’ve really come to understand now, I would say, after I got out of the first trimester and I started feeling good, I looked back, and I was like, ‘I wish I just told myself that it’s a phase of life. Number one, it’s temporary; you’re going to get out of it. And number two, if you think that a good workout is going to be the same as it was before you got pregnant, you are seriously mistaken, and you’re going to set yourself up for failure.'”
Austin now understands she’ll be “redefining what strength is” throughout every stage of her pregnancy, “because strength is going to look different every single day in pregnancy.”
The model mom-to-be is also applying that attitude to her preparation for the Sports Illustrated Swim runway.
“Everything’s different this year,” she explains. “I feel like usually, I would have a little bit more of a workout regimen and be watching a little bit more of what I eat. But at this stage of my life, being six months pregnant, it’s not really going to matter as much of what I eat. So I think making sure I’m eating the right things as far as feeling good, I think that’s the entire point of it.”
Other lead-up preparations include “trying to calm the jitters.”
“This year is different because I cannot take my annual tequila shot before the runway, so I’ll be missing that,” she laughs. “But it’ll be good because I love the girls this year. I think this is our best group of girls yet. Their energy will help as well, and they’re such a great team.”
Austin continues, “I’ll be practicing my walk because I can nail a walk when I’m not pregnant, but I’m not sure how the belly is going to waddle. And this year is also different because Hulu will be documenting everything, which is really exciting. It’s going to be fun. I feel like my baby girl is going to be my best accessory I’ve ever had on the runway.”
“I feel really great now, and I definitely learned a lot, and I’m really happy to say that I’ll be prepared for next pregnancy because now I know what to expect.”
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Runway Show streams June 9 on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+
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