The recently concluded 2026 WNBA season has shown Sophie Cunningham more than ever as one of the league’s most visible personalities outside of basketball. She has grabbed the spotlight at several other sporting events this season, the latest being the 2026 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix, held at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, on Sunday.

In a picture shared by Luna Williams on X, the Indiana Fever star and Olympic sprint star Gabby Thomas briefly linked up at the event and posed for a picture together. In a short clip of their brief interaction, it was Cunningham who spotted Thomas, walked up to her, and, with both stars all smiles, stopped for a quick picture. It was a brief interaction, but an absolutely wholesome one.

Gabby Thomas is a standout star of the 2024 Paris Olympics, where she captured three gold medals in 200m, 4x100m, and 4x400m. She also has deep ties to the area where the Grand Prix wasbeing held, having trained locally and pursued her master’s degree at UT Austin

The meeting with Thomas, however, was just one part of a highly publicized weekend for Cunningham. She was also officially tapped by Formula 1 to wave the checkered flag at the conclusion of the Grand Prix, cementing her ties to motorsports after making several appearances at NASCAR events earlier in the year.

Alongside her NASCAR appearances, which saw her moonlight as a celebrity pit road reporter for USA Network, hang out in the garages, kick footballs into the stands, and conduct interviews with major drivers and team owner Michael Jordan during the WNBA’s month-long break, Cunningham has also made quite a number of similar cross-sport appearances this season. The UFC was one such example.

In fact, she actually had one of her most viral crossover moments of the season at the UFC when she served as a surprise guest Octagon Girl at UFC 329 on July 11. Held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, the night was headlined by Conor McGregor versus Max Holloway. And yes, Cunningham’s cameo in that role turned out to be completely spontaneous.

Sophie Cunningham was actually attending her first-ever live fight as a fan. Having recently struck up a friendship with UFC CEO Dana White, she ran into him backstage. And she casually joked that she wanted to walk the Octagon, prompting Dana White to officially “hire” her on the spot just eight minutes before she stepped out.

And then right before the highly anticipated lightweight co-main event between Paddy Pimblett and Benoît Saint Denis, Cunningham walked the Octagon carrying the Round 1 card. While inside the cage, she even threw up her viral finger-point gesture to the crowd.

Beyond all that, Cunningham has also had a little bit of crossover action with golf. She stepped onto the green alongside her Indiana Fever teammate Lexie Hull to serve as a celebrity guest caddie for Caitlin Clark during the high-profile Annika pro-am golf tournament. While on the course, Cunningham and Hull also decided to take a few swings on the tee box for the cameras.

Of course, amidst all these different sporting appearances, especially her most recent one at the United States Grand Prix, basketball and the WNBA remain Cunningham’s primary focus. She is currently an unrestricted free agent after playing through the 2026 WNBA season on a one-year, fully guaranteed contract worth $665,000, which expired following the Indiana Fever’s first-round playoff elimination by the Las Vegas Aces.

Whether the Indiana Fever will re-sign her, however, remains to be seen. The fact that the franchise is currently going through a massive organizational shake-up, with team president Kelly Krauskopf stepping down and general manager Amber Cox unexpectedly fired, adds another layer of complication to Cunningham’s impending negotiations.