Boston shows up strong for new Sports Illustrated cover

Please note: DAVID ORTIZ BYLINE!

Sports Illustrated shares how the photo came together:

The people of Boston made a strong showing— would you expect anything else?— when SI put out a casting call for a photo shoot last Saturday at the Boston Marathon finish line on Boylston Street, steps from where two bombs exploded on Patriots’ Day last year. A crowd of 3,000, including runners who were near the blast, first responders and mayor Marty Walsh, arrived by 7 a.m. to celebrate the city’s—and the race’s—resilience in the face of the terror attacks.

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Of the cover photo, SI’s Director of Photography Brad Smith said, “A year later, Boston has shown the strength to carry on. I’m proud that Sports Illustrated was able to contribute, in a small way, to that process with this cover. You can see in the faces of the people of Boston, how far they’ve come, together as a city.”

Here are some behind-the-scenes photos from the cover shoot, too.

There’s a terrific GigaPan of the cover image on SI.com. Take a look!