In an Unprecedented Move, Every Member of the USWNT Is Getting Her Own Sports Illustrated Cover

Updated on July 13, 2015 at 5:53 PM

It was a historic weekend for the US women's soccer team — ahem, World Cup champions. After taking part in the first-ever ticker-tape parade to honor a women's sports team, they celebrated on stage with Taylor Swift during her concert in East Rutherford, NJ, to the tune of 60,000 fans cheering, "U-S-A! U-S-A!"

The pinch-me-I'm-dreaming moment didn't end there. For the first time in history, Sports Illustrated shot a total of 25 covers for an upcoming issue — one for each member of the team, one for coach Jill Ellis, and the group shot seen here. "The USWNT has plenty of recognizable, even famous names, but we couldn't think of a group so thoroughly identified with a team as this one," said Chris Stone, Sports Illustrated managing editor. "We could go two ways: a team shot, which seemed a little conventional here, or something different and fresh: honoring not just one or two players, but all 23 of them with their own cover." We couldn't agree more.

Keep reading to see even more covers and how members of USWNT felt about the big win!

Megan Rapinoe, midfielder: "It's so nice, isn't it? We were saying this is our star forever."

(Each star on the USWNT jersey represents a World Cup win. Team USA has previously won the FIFA's Women's World Cup in 1991 and 1999.)

Abby Wambach, forward: "This team is a full team. I think because of the depth of our roster, we were able to bring home the World Cup . . . everybody had their own little piece to the puzzle in order for this thing to align perfectly in the way that it did for us to bring home the trophy . . . I don't know if it gets better than this."

See the remaining 22 covers here.