Trinity Rodman had played a full NWSL fixture the day before. On Saturday, 18 October, she walked out of the tunnel at Sony Pictures Studios in a cropped black tank and boyshorts from the PINK collection and found herself alongside a woman she had last shared a pitch with as a five-year-old.
Natalia Bryant, 23, and Rodman, 24, made their Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show debuts on the same night in Los Angeles. The two had been teammates in youth football long before either had a public profile, and reconnected backstage.
Rodman, who plays as a forward for the Washington Spirit and won gold with the US women’s national team at the 2024 Olympics, was blunt about the nerves.
“I would say I’m more nervous for this than probably a World Cup game,” she told Hola! backstage.
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The 24-year-old had been on the pitch 24 hours earlier. The Spirit had clinched their third straight playoff berth with a win over Gotham FC on 16 October, and Rodman’s club confirmed the new three-year deal that keeps her in Washington through 2028.
A friendship that pre-dates the fame
The two met on a youth football team in Southern California when they were around four or five.
“Nobody was trying,” Rodman said of those early games.
Bryant, the eldest daughter of the late Kobe Bryant, signed with IMG Models in 2021 and has walked for Versace and Off-White since. Rodman is the daughter of Dennis Rodman, who joined Kobe Bryant on the Los Angeles Lakers for the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season. That overlap gave the two girls a reason to end up on the same youth side a few years later.
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On the night, Bryant wore a black and pink bra, a pink velvet shrug, rhinestone-studded jeans and oversized heart earrings. Backstage she was giddy.
“I’m so excited! So over the moon. I can’t wait,” she said.
Rodman landed on the sentimental beat.
“Full circle to now, Victoria’s Secret.”
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Athletes on the runway are no longer a novelty
Rodman’s walk followed WNBA forward Angel Reese’s appearance at the 2025 show, which Victoria’s Secret marked as the first time a professional athlete had been cast in the main runway. A year later, two athlete daughters of athlete fathers made the cut on the same evening, with Rodman carrying an active international career onto the catwalk.
The headline act was elsewhere on the night. Kylie Jenner wore a Fantasy Bra valued at $50m, becoming the first person outside the Victoria’s Secret Angels roster to debut the piece in a runway setting.
The Washington Spirit’s next fixture is at home against the Kansas City Current on 25 October.
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