Sydney Sweeney’s sports ad has become the controversy of the week. The actress stars nude – covered only by footballs, basketballs and hockey gear – in the “Just Sports” campaign for Novig, a sports prediction market, which launched September 9 as the company’s first national brand push. Now female athletes, led by Olympic champions, are pushing back with a viral response of their own.
“A kick in the face”
Four-time Olympic gold medalist Ariarne Titmus led the criticism on Instagram. “I can’t describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this,” the retired Australian swimmer wrote, calling the campaign “a kick in the face to every woman who has dedicated her life to perfecting her craft” and asking: “How do we live in a world where monetising a woman’s body and sexualising women’s sport is still a thing?”
The counter-trend: this is what women in sport look like
Former UCLA gymnast Gracie Kramer flipped the script with a highlight reel of her own career, captioned: “Idk what Sydney Sweeney was doing, but this is what a woman in sports looks like.” The post has drawn nearly a million likes. Athletes followed in waves: Australian swimmer Lani Pallister, sprinters Bree Rizzo and Amy Hunt, water polo silver medalist Tilly Kearns and world champion boxer Skye Nicolson all reposted the message with their own footage. Hunt told the BBC directly: “Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like. Muscles. Hard work, blood, sweat, tears.”
Nicolson drew the line many athletes are drawing: “There’s a big difference between looking ‘sexy’ because you do sport compared to using sex to sell ‘sport.'”
More than a spokeswoman
Sweeney is not a typical face for hire here: Novig says she joined as a strategic partner and equity holder, and she told Complex she was part of the creative process “from the very beginning,” calling the concept “a very simple and playful idea.” She has also pointed to her own sports background – soccer, softball, slalom skiing and MMA training, including portraying boxer Christy Martin in the 2025 film Christy.
Her response so far
Sweeney has not answered the athletes directly. As criticism spread, she re-shared images from ESPN’s old Body Issue – nude portraits of athletes including Serena Williams and Megan Rapinoe – on her Instagram Stories, and kept promoting the campaign on September 13 with the caption “It’s gamedayyyy.”
Sources: AOL/Wealth of Geeks; Deadline; The Guardian; BBC; Complex. Featured image: Sydney Sweeney by Glenn Francis, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.