AKRON, N.Y. (WKBW) — Meet 10-year-old Honor Smoke. This Akron 5th grader just made history as the youngest athlete ever to appear on a Sports Illustrated promotional cover.
Honor is on the cover of the first-ever Sports ReIllustrated. SI partnered with the beauty brand Dove to create a special online edition of the publication that celebrates young female athletes breaking barriers.
“I was like, well we don’t have a lot to do in the winter, so I tried out wrestling since that’s what we normally do around the house,” Honor said. “When my mom told me [I’d be in Sports Illustrated], I was like ‘What!?’”
Honor is a young difference maker, at just 10 years old and competing in a male-dominated sport, there are not many girls for her to wrestle in the area.
“Most matches she competes against boys,” Honor’s mom Brittany Smoke said. “What makes me most proud is that she is persistent and doesn’t give up.”
“It feels good to beat the boys,” Honor said.
Honor has become a bit of a school celebrity and hopes her stardom can inspire more girls like her to try out her favorite sport.
Q: “Why do you think more girls should wrestle?”
Honor: “It’s a good sport to do because it builds confidence in things, and you get a lot of strength from it.”
The special edition is available to SI subscribers online right now.
It will also run as a special section within the magazine's printed March issue. That will not be available in stores, copies will only be mailed out to people who are subscribed starting February 13.
