Female athletes across multiple sports have criticized a sports betting advert featuring actress Sydney Sweeney nearly nude, arguing it reduces women in sport to their bodies rather than their achievements.
The advert, titled "Confirmed: Sydney Sweeney Knows Ball" and produced for betting company Novig, shows Sweeney covering parts of her body with various pieces of sports equipment. The campaign has drawn criticism from athletes who say it reinforces the sexualization of women in sport.
Amy Hunt's response
According to a BBC report, British sprinter Amy Hunt, a quadruple European champion, commented on the advert after posting her season's best time of 22.10 seconds and finishing fourth in the 200 metres final at the Ultimate Championship in Budapest on Sunday, September 13.
Hunt said the advert was not what women in sport look like. Referring to the winning time of 21.47 seconds run by Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, the fourth fastest ever recorded over that distance, Hunt said it represented muscle, hard work, blood, sweat and tears, calling it a wonderful night.
Gracie Kramer starts a trend
The reaction spread to athletes from a range of sports, who began posting videos from their competitions and training sessions describing the setbacks and struggles of their careers. The trend was started by American gymnast Gracie Kramer, who posted a montage of her training with a caption saying she did not know what Sweeney had done, but that this was what women in sport looked like.
Kramer said she had not expected the reaction to her post and had simply wanted to encourage women and remind them that adverts of this kind are not the only thing that matters. She said it had been really nice to see so many incredible athletes join the trend, encouraging themselves and each other.
Kramer added that she had grown used to receiving degrading and objectifying messages from men because she competed in a leotard as a gymnast. She said being objectified for almost her entire career had given her the strength to post the message and to stand up for women who do not want to be objectified or drawn into that narrative.
More athletes speak out
Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus, a four-time Olympic champion, said the advert was a setback not only for every woman who has dedicated her life to perfecting her sport, but for every woman who simply enjoys sport for what it is. She asked how the commodification of women's bodies and the sexualization of women's sport could still be a reality.
British Olympic cyclist Sophie Capewell MBE, rugby players Lisa Neumann and Ellie Boatman, and Australian Olympic water polo player Tilly Kearns also shared their own personal stories. Capewell, whose own post attracted wide attention, said it was striking how many women had come forward to speak. She said the advert gave a very specific picture of women in sport, and that the difficult question was why this had become the image of sport's campaigns, when it could instead focus on being an athlete. She said the issue was not that someone had chosen to show autonomy, but that this seemed to be the only narrative offered to women in sport, or the one that gained the most attention.
England rugby player Alex Matthews said adverts like Sweeney's should not lead young women to believe there is a single body type that suits everyone. She said no one gets an idealized perfect body, and that in rugby especially, a team could not exist without a range of body types, since every body type carries its own strength. Matthews, who represented Great Britain in rugby sevens at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, said one of the most inspiring parts of staying in the Olympic Village had been seeing older and younger generations, taller athletes and more heavily built athletes, all of them the best at what they did.
How Sweeney responded
Sweeney has not commented in detail on the controversy, but posted a series of photographs on social media showing other athletes who had posed nude or in minimal clothing over the years.
The photographs included ESPN magazine covers featuring tennis star Serena Williams and mixed martial arts fighter Ronda Rousey, alongside male athletes including NFL player Myles Garrett and New York Knicks basketball player Karl-Anthony Towns.
Sweeney was also at the center of another advertising controversy last year, when she fronted an American Eagle jeans campaign with the slogan "Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans." That campaign also drew backlash on social media, with criticism focused on the wordplay between "jeans" and "genes," which sparked a debate about race and beauty standards.
