Olympians speak out over controversial Sydney Sweeney sports betting ad: 'Absolute utter disbelief'

An ad for Novig , a sports betting platform, featuring Sydney Sweeney, was released last week and drew sharp criticism in the sports and entertainment worlds.

The ad, in which Sweeney posed fully or nearly nude, covering herself only with various sports equipment, suggests that the company is "just sports," a jab at the growing prediction markets that have begun to include wagers on politics, wars and even deaths.

It quickly became a source of controversy, with both current and former female athletes speaking out about the sexualization of the ad and how it portrays women in sports.

Australian Olympian Ariarne Titmus, a four-time gold medalist, posted an Instagram story about the ad. In it, she said she was "infuriated" when she watched the commercial.

"I can't describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this. Not only is it a kick in the face to every woman who has dedicated her life to perfecting her craft, but every woman who enjoys sports for what it really is – teamwork, friendship, dedication, excellence, unity. How do we live in a world where monetizing a woman's body and sexualizing women's sport is still a thing?"

"I can't describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this.

Not only is it a kick in the face to every woman who has dedicated her life to perfecting her craft, but every woman who enjoys sports for what it really is – teamwork, friendship, dedication, excellence, unity.

How do we live in a world where monetizing a woman's body and sexualizing women's sport is still a thing?"

British sprinter Amy Hunt finished running the 200m final at the Ultimate Championship in Budapest, and immediately called out Sweeney and the ad.

"Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like."

Former collegiate gymnast and current TikTok star Gracie Kramer called out Sweeney with a personal highlight reel from her career on her Instagram , captioning it "idk what Sydney Sweeney was doing, but this is what a woman in sport looks like."

This prompted several other current and former female athletes to post highlight reels celebrating their sports and accomplishments.

Australian water polo Olympian Tilly Kearns posted a highlight reel with a caption, "I absolutely f—- hate Sydney Sweeney's new sports ad. Like what are we doing … so much worse than I imagined too. Here's some real women sports content."

The Australian Institute of Sport posted a video highlighting several female athletes across disciplines with the tagline "this is sport."

Australian swimmer Lani Pallister posted a compilation video of her competing and training. The caption read, "Don't know what Sydney thinks sport looks like, but THIS is what sport looks like."

Australian field hockey goalie Joc Bartram posted a video with a lengthy caption calling out Sweeney and the ad, saying in part: "There are so many incredible female athletes doing wonderful things for their sport and women's sport as a whole, please throw your support behind them rather than this tasteless campaign!"

Professional surfer Felicity Palmateer did an interview with CNN about the ad.

"Just absolute utter disbelief, incredibly disappointing, like, how far you can put women's sports backwards in the space of a 42-second commercial. [The ad] is very damaging, especially for young females getting into sport, for females in sport, for females in general, just hypersexualized content. We want to be valued for what we can do, not what we look like."

"Just absolute utter disbelief, incredibly disappointing, like, how far you can put women's sports backwards in the space of a 42-second commercial. [The ad] is very damaging, especially for young females getting into sport, for females in sport, for females in general, just hypersexualized content.

We want to be valued for what we can do, not what we look like."

Sweeney didn't directly comment on the backlash, but appeared to respond in her own way. The "Euphoria" actress posted several Instagram stories featuring female athletes who participated in ESPN's "The Body" issue, which featured athletes nude or semi-nude.

There were 11 issues of that edition of the ESPN magazine, with the last running in 2019. Sweeney posted covers of Serena Williams, Megan Rapinoe, Sue Bird, Ronda Rousey, Myles Garrett, Rob Gronkowski, Karl Anthony-Towns, the Philadelphia Eagles offensive line, and ended it with a snapshot of her ad.