Argentinian Model Makes Swimsuit Issue Cover

N E W   Y O R K, Feb. 21 -- Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue is heating up magazine stands around the country this winter. Cover girl Yamila Diaz-Rahi, a Victoria's Secret model, is still in shock over landing the coveted cover.

"It was just very quick," Diaz-Rahi told ABCNEWS' Good Morning America. "I feel like, you know, I'm shocked."

For models, landing a shot on the cover is a coup.Past cover girls include top models Cheryl Tiegs, Christie Brinkley, Elle Macpherson and Tyra Banks.

"It's incredible because it's not like any other cover," Diaz-Rahi said. "All the covers are great, but the Sports Illustrated one is 56 million people reading the magazine. So it's a big thing. And I'm so happy that it happened."

The women in Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues are top models — not athletes — but the tradition of featuring them goes back to 1964. Diaz-Rahi, 25, who was selected for the cover this year, found out just two days before the 2002 swimsuit issue hit newsstands on Wednesday.

Though the Argentinean beauty never intended to become a model, everything changed when a modeling agency scout spotted Diaz-Rahi in Buenos Aires, where she was studying economics. She flew to Milan shortly thereafter and launched her modeling career, skyrocketing in popularity after she appeared in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Calendar in 1999.

On the cover of the swimsuit issue, Diaz-Rahi is on a beach in Mexico, in line with the theme of the issue, Latin America.

"I'm so proud that I got the cover because I'm from Argentina, and the whole issue is very colorful," Diaz-Rahi said. "The colors are very strong, very powerful."

Other photos were shot in front of storefronts on a street in Spanish Harlem in New York. "It's a crazy location," she said. "It was nice. I like to do it. I love it."