Female Athletes Push Back on Sydney Sweeney's New Sports Ad

Caption: Sydney Sweeney at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2024. Credit: Jay Dixit / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

A sports-prediction ad starring Sydney Sweeney has become a sports story because elite female athletes are publicly pushing back on how it portrays women in competition. Olympians including British sprinter Amy Hunt and Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus joined criticism of a campaign they say sexualizes women’s sport instead of showing athletic performance.

The Ad Used Sports as the Setting

The campaign is for Novig, a sports prediction platform in which Sweeney is a strategic partner and equity holder, according to reporting by The Guardian. The video places the actress in a series of sports-themed scenes built around provocative imagery rather than competitive performance.

The people objecting are not simply viewers; they include women whose careers are built on the sports being referenced.

Athletes Reframed the Argument

Hunt responded by emphasizing the physical work of elite sport - strength, training, sweat and sacrifice. Titmus also criticized the way the campaign used women’s athletics. Other athletes and sports figures amplified similar objections.

Their response changes the center of the story. Instead of debating whether a celebrity ad is tasteful, the argument becomes who gets to define the image of women in sport: a betting campaign or the athletes themselves.

The Campaign Is Still Running Into Reaction

The criticism spread across social platforms and international sports coverage over the weekend. The underlying ad remains a marketing campaign, but the athlete response has become the consequential development.

The next signal is whether Novig or Sweeney changes the campaign or addresses the criticism directly. Until then, the story is the athletes’ decision to challenge the image being sold in their name.

References: Female athletes accuse Sydney Sweeney ad of sexualizing women in sports | ‘Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like’: female athletes spark backlash against viral advert | Sydney Sweeney’s sport betting ad roasted by Olympians for sexualising women’s sport