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Several female athletes, including Olympic champions, have criticized a viral advertisement starring U.S. actor Sydney Sweeney, saying the campaign for a sports betting platform sexualizes women's sports.
The criticism centers on the "Just Sports" campaign for Novig, a U.S. sports prediction-market company, released on Sept. 9.
The advertisement shows Sweeney wearing little or no clothing while sports equipment is positioned across her body as she imitates activities including tennis, hockey, golf, basketball and American football.
Sweeney repeatedly says "sports" throughout the advertisement, which ends by inviting viewers to test their sporting knowledge on Novig's platform.
The campaign attracted tens of millions of views online. In response, athletes from several sports began posting footage of themselves training and competing, framed around variations of the message "this is what a woman in sport looks like."
Former U.S. gymnast Gracie Kramer was among the first to respond, sharing competition footage on Instagram and writing that she did not know what Sweeney "was doing" but that her own footage represented what a woman in sport looks like.
Olympic swimmer Lani Pallister and sprinters Bree Masters and Amy Hunt later shared similar posts documenting their training and competition results.
Hunt, who finished fourth in the 200 meters at the Ultimate Championship in Budapest last weekend behind U.S. sprinter Melissa Jefferson-Wooden's winning time of 21.47 seconds, the fourth fastest in history, addressed Sweeney directly in a BBC television interview.
"Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like. 21.4. Muscles. Hard work, blood, sweat, tears," Hunt said, adding that being a woman in sport is "not pretty" or "glamorous" and "not sexy all the time."
The Australian Institute of Sport also posted footage of women competing in archery, gymnastics, boxing and softball, along with footage of sports scientists working behind the scenes.
Four-time Olympic swimming champion Ariarne Titmus described the campaign as "an absolute joke" on Instagram.
"I can't describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this," she wrote, adding that it was "a kick in the face" to women who had dedicated their lives to their sport as well as to those who valued sport for its teamwork, friendship, dedication, excellence and unity.
She questioned why monetizing and sexualizing women's bodies "is still a thing."
Australian Olympic water polo medalist Tilly Kearns posted a compilation of women competing across sports and said she "absolutely" disliked the advertisement.
World champion boxer Skye Nicolson said the criticism was not directed at women embracing their appearance, but at using sexualized imagery to market a sports product.
"There's a big difference between looking 'sexy' because you do sport compared to using sex to sell 'sport,'" Nicolson wrote, adding that the campaign made a "mockery" of women in sports.
Sweeney is not only the face of the campaign. Novig announced that the 29-year-old actor, known for the television series "Euphoria," has joined the company as a strategic partner and equity holder.
Sweeney told Complex magazine that she had been involved in creative discussions from the start and didn't want to attach her name to a company without a role in the project.
Novig defended the campaign as an attempt to emphasize that its prediction market focuses exclusively on sports.
"The campaign was about embracing a fun idea," Sweeney said in the company's announcement, describing the approach as one of "confidence, humor and a playful edge."
Sweeney appeared to respond indirectly to the criticism on Sunday by sharing previous ESPN Body Issue covers featuring nude and partially clothed male and female athletes.
She did not directly address the athletes' criticism or clarify whether the posts were meant to defend the campaign.
The backlash echoes criticism directed at Sweeney over American Eagle's "Sydney Sweeney has great jeans" campaign in 2025, which was accused of invoking the language of eugenics after Sweeney said in a promotional video, since deleted, that genes are passed down from parents to offspring and often determine traits such as hair color and eye color.
Sweeney later said she had been surprised by the reaction and that she was "against hate and divisiveness," adding that her silence during the controversy had "widened the divide."
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