How fitness star Katie Austin turned childhood on-screen dreams into SI Swimsuit reality

Katie Austin knew since childhood she wanted to be in front of the camera.The daughter of fitness pioneer Denise Austin and tennis-player-turned-sports-agent Jeff Austin, the 31-year-old multihyphenate — whose titles include certified fitness trainer, entrepreneur and host, to name a few — recalls fearlessly hopping into the frame of her mom’s shoots, laying the foundation for a burgeoning career in the spotlight that has since reached the heights of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit.“When she would film her show while we were on vacation, I would always jump right in,” Austin told The Post in a recent interview.“There’s really cute videos of me walking up to my mom while she is filming her show, and I just smile at the camera, I’m literally 3 years old.”Growing up in an athletic household, the Virginia native fostered dreams of becoming an NBA host — “my dad’s a basketball agent so I grew up around a lot of NBA players” — with those aspirations taking her across the country to USC, where she played Divison I lacrosse.“I think sports at a young age taught me determination, taught me teamwork, leadership, time management and how to work with other people, so I feel like I’m very grateful that I was involved in sports at a very, very young age,” Austin said.Austin started in 16 of 18 games during her freshman season in 2013, scoring eight goals and tallying nine assists.

Upon landing a sports hosting role in her sophomore year, the balancing act became difficult to manage and Austin quit lacrosse, choosing to focus on her future.“I wanted to break out of my shell because I already knew what I wanted to do in life and it was hard to still play the sport,” she said.Veering into uncharted territory in a post-student-athlete era, Austin — who had long worked out with teammates and coaches — had more time on her hands and found herself cultivating a new community in the fitness space.Taking inspiration from YouTube videos, she went on ...