'This is what women in sport look like': Athletes turn Sydney Sweeney's ad into a rallying cry

British sprinter Amy Hunt is among a growing list of female athletes who have hit back at a viral sports gambling advertisement starring actress Sydney Sweeney, accusing it of reducing women's sporting achievements to their appearance.

The advert, according to the BBC, features Sweeney naked while using pieces of sporting equipment to cover parts of her body, and has triggered a wide backlash from the women's sporting community over its sexualisation of female athletes.

What did Amy Hunt say?


Hunt, a four-time European champion, addressed the row after finishing fourth in the women's 200m final at the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest on Sunday, clocking a season's best 22.10 seconds.

Speaking to BBC Sport after the race, she said, "Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like." Referring to winner Melissa Jefferson-Wooden's time of 21.47 seconds, the fourth fastest ever run over the distance, Hunt added, "21.4. Muscles. Hard work, blood, sweat, tears. This is a beautiful evening."

Who is behind the advert, and what does it show?

The campaign, titled "Just Sports," was made for the American sports-prediction platform Novig, in which Sweeney is reported to hold an equity stake as a strategic partner rather than simply a paid endorser.

In the ad, Sweeney is shown mock-playing sports including tennis, basketball, golf and ice hockey while mostly nude, repeating the word "sports" several times before saying lines including "you can't trade this, I just look good here."

The backlash has spread well beyond track and field, the BBC reported, with athletes across disciplines posting videos of themselves training or competing alongside accounts of the struggles behind their careers.

The trend was started by American gymnast Gracie Kramer, who posted a training montage captioned, "I don't know what Sydney Sweeney was doing, but this is what women in sport look like," a post that drew nearly a million likes, including from Olympic diving medallist Kassidy Cook.

Australia's four-time Olympic swimming champion Ariarne Titmus called the advert "a kick in the face to every woman who has dedicated her life to perfecting her craft," and asked, "How do we live in a world where monetising a woman's body and sexualising women's sport is still a thing?"

Britain's Olympic cycling champion Sophie Capewell, rugby players Lisa Neumann and Ellie Boatman, and Australian water polo Olympian Tilly Kearns also shared their own responses, according to the BBC.

Other athletes to speak out included Australian surfer Felicity Palmateer, who told CNN the campaign was "very damaging" for young girls entering sport, world champion boxer Skye Nicolson, and Olympians Bree Masters, Lauren Ryan, Liz Clay and Lani Pallister.

How did Sweeney respond?

Sweeney has not directly commented on the criticism, the BBC reported, but posted a series of photographs on social media of other athletes who had posed naked or in minimal clothing, including tennis great Serena Williams and mixed martial artist Ronda Rousey, alongside NFL player Myles Garrett and basketball player Karl-Anthony Towns, in an apparent suggestion of hypocrisy.

Those images appear to be drawn from ESPN The Magazine's Body Issue, an annual nude athlete photography feature that ran from 2009 to 2019 before the magazine ended its print run.

The 29-year-old, known for the television series Euphoria and films including Anyone But You and The Housemaid, previously faced backlash over an American Eagle denim campaign in 2025 that drew criticism over a wordplay tagline some viewers said carried racial undertones, a claim the company denied.