Fitness icon Denise Austin’s best advice for SI swimsuit model daughter is ‘one body, one life, make it count’

Katie Austin, daughter of fitness icon Denise Austin, didn’t always intend to follow in her mother’s fitness footsteps.

"I’ve been in the fitness industry since I was born, basically," Austin told Fox News Digital on the red carpet for the SiriusXM broadcast on Media Row during Super Bowl weekend.

"My first workout video was when I was 7, but I was an athlete my entire life, and so you can’t think about a career and what you want in life when you’re young like that," she continued.

As a Division I lacrosse player in college, Austin admitted she wasn’t necessarily looking for a career in the fitness industry.

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"I never thought about it. I was just focused on my sport," she said. "And then when I moved on from lacrosse, I was a host on Fox Sports West."

With that job, the now 30-year-old gradually realized she was approaching a "full-circle moment" and following in her mother’s footsteps.

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"I was combining my love for athletics and hosting at the same time being a fitness personality, and it was just kind of this subconscious thing, ‘Oh my gosh, my mom’s done this her entire life.’" And now we do stuff together and it’s really become a full-circle moment."

She added, "Her generation really says, ‘Oh my goodness, it’s so cute your daughter does it with you,’ and my girls now say, ‘Oh my God, my mom grew up with you,’ so it’s really, really cool."

Austin is one of Denise's two daughters with her husband, Jeff Austin, and was featured in last year’s Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. She also walked the runway with her mother for the 2022 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Runway Show.

When it comes to advice from her mother, Austin noted Denise lives by "Practice what you preach. And that woman sure as hell practices what she preaches." 

Austin continued, "She does exactly what she says she does, and she wakes up every day with an amazing attitude. She is positive all the time, and it comes from being grateful. She is so grateful to be alive, and she’s always taught me, one body, one life, make it count, and I really stand by that."

While her mother is supportive, she joked that she can be a little too supportive and often accidentally likes negative comments on her Instagram.

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"She also hearts the haters!" Austin said with a laugh. "Someone will be like, ‘You look ugly,’ and she hearts it, and I’m like, ‘Mom, you can’t like everything!’"

Austin was joined for the Sirius XM broadcast by her fellow Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue alum Ellie Thumann as well as Jena Sims, who made her debut in the 2024 issue.

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"Vegas is like the perfect venue for the Super Bowl. Can’t we just do it here every single year?" Sims said.

Thumann added, "It should be a rule. I think this is the perfect place for it. Everyone is here, and I think Vegas on its own is already such a fun place, adding the Super Bowl element is going to make it unbeatable."

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"The energy is just different here, this is actually my sixth Super Bowl and I think everyone just has this Vegas energy about them, which makes it so fun. Plus, there’s so much madness going on with football and work and everything, but adding in the element of all the parties here right on the Strip and doing it together with Sports Illustrated Swimsuit and our entire, all our [friends] here, we’re just feeling a little funky," Austin said.

The women were also celebrating the surge in interest in football among women, thanks not only to Taylor Swift but other female influencers. 

"I think it’s been really fun to see girls around me learn more about it and get into it, and I think it’s such an exciting aspect to it. It’s getting a lot more people involved, and I think it’s also really fun for dads and grandpas to be connecting that way," Thumann said. 

She continued, "Even in the airport, I was wearing a jacket, like a Chiefs’ jacket in the airport, and the amount of sweet little grandpas coming up to me and showing me these random little things on their phone or showing me their granddaughter wearing a sweatshirt, it was super cool."

Austin said, "The female viewership has just skyrocketed. … We’ve seen so many amazing females really help with the effort of that audience. I mean Alix Earle, Kristin Juszczyk, we have Allison Kuch, Taylor Swift, and with all those it’s just helping the NFL bring awareness to the female community and connect with females.

"Now, females actually care, not that they didn’t before, not stereotyping, but seriously, we’re getting more girls and women caring about football players, which is really, really cool, and loving the game, and not just because of who [they] like, they love Taylor Swift, they love Alix Earle, but loving the game which is really, really powerful."

Sims, wife of pro golfer Brooks Koepka, also offered advice on being a "WAG," aka a wife or girlfriend to a pro athlete.

"[Don’t] lose yourself in it, it’s so easy to give up on your hopes and dreams and just follow whatever your spouse is doing," she said. "I think successful couples, like Brittany and Patrick Mahomes, Taylor, Travis, me and Brooks, we all have our own things going."

She added, "It’s why he fell in love with me in the first place because I had my own thing going, so don’t forget that and keep your career."