Czech, please: It’s SI’s swimsuit cover girl
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Known affectionately as the “Czech Chick,” Petra Nemcova was named the 2003 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue cover girl Monday.
Putting a thaw on the East Coast blizzard, Czech supermodel Petra Nemcova was named the 2003 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue cover girl Monday.
Magazine editors were planning on surprising Nemcova at New York’s JFK airport with flowers and a camera crew.
Instead, “I’m stuck at the Atlanta airport because of the snow,” Nemcova, 23, said Monday after receiving the news in an uneventful phone call. “I’m supposed to do morning shows and a big party (Tuesday). How I’m going to get to New York, I just don’t know.”
Nemcova is the third Czech mate to make the SI cover, after Paulina Porizkova and Daniela Pestova. “Maybe it’s something in the water,” says Nemcova.
The first person she called was longtime boyfriend, Dutch model Donaes Platteel. “He was super happy for me,” says Nemcova, who speaks three languages.
Known affectionately as the “Czech Chick,” Nemcova hails from Karvina, a small mountain town northeast of Prague. “Some people love the ocean, but for me, it’s the forest.” The former fashion design student was discovered at a talent audition in her hometown. Now she travels the globe posing for Victoria’s Secret, Cartier and others.
“I am in the air more than I am on earth,” she says. Terrorism and war talk don’t scare her. “I’m not afraid to fly. I think when the heart is filled with love, there is no room for fear. So I try to fill my heart with love.”
The issue hits newsstands Wednesday.
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