{"id":624263,"date":"2026-09-14T10:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T10:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/624263\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T10:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T10:12:10","slug":"sydney-sweeney-faces-backlash-for-sexualising-womens-sport-in-betting-ad-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/624263\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney Sweeney faces backlash for \u2018sexualising women\u2019s sport\u2019 in betting ad \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Olympic<\/a> athletes have come out in force to condemn a sports betting<\/a> advert featuring actor Sydney Sweeney<\/a> in various states of undress.<\/p>\n

The campaign, for US<\/a> sports prediction market company Novig, depicts Sweeney in minimal to no clothing while she pretends to play several different sports.<\/p>\n

It has been widely criticised for sexualising women\u2019s sport, with retired Olympic swimmer Ariarne Titmus saying she thought this type of \u201cbulls**t\u201d marketing was a thing of the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this,\u201d the four-time Olympic gold medallist wrote on Instagram.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only is it a kick in the face to every woman who had dedicated her life to perfecting her craft, but every women who enjoys sports for what it really is \u2013 teamwork, friendship, dedication, excellent, unity \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do we live in a world where monetising a women\u2019s body and sexualising women\u2019s sport is still a thing?\u201d<\/p>\n

The response from athletes has been swift, not only to denounce the ad but to use it as an opportunity to highlight the excellence of women\u2019s sport.<\/p>\n

Taking inspiration from American gymnast Gracie Kramer, who kick-started a trend of responses centred around her line \u201cthis is what a woman in sport looks like\u201d, Australian Olympic swimmer Lani Pallister shared an Instagram video of her training regime, races and medals.<\/p>\n

Track sprinter Bree Rizzo also posted a highlights reel of her career on the track while the Australian Institute of Sport\u2019s version featured archery, gymnastics, boxing, softball, and a peek behind the scenes at women\u2019s sport science in action.<\/p>\n

Water polo silver medallist Tilly Kearns wrote \u201cI absolutely fking hate Sydney Sweeney\u2019s new sports ad\u201d, while world champion boxer Skye Nicolson said the backlash was about making a \u201cmockery\u201d of women in sport rather than judging how women look.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a big difference between looking \u2018sexy\u2019 because you do sport compared to [using] sex to sell \u2018sport\u2019,\u201d she wrote in an Instagram story.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nothing wrong with looking good and doing sport and there\u2019s nothing wrong with embracing your femininity while also being a badass athlete.\u201d<\/p>\n

While some social media users suggested anger should be directed at Novig rather than Sweeney, the actor is not just the face of the campaign, having joined as \u201cstrategic partner and equity holder\u201d, according to a Novig statement.<\/p>\n

Novig and Sweeney are the beneficiaries of the attention, which is similar to the outrage caused by American Eagle\u2019s \u201cSydney Sweeney has great jeans\u201d<\/a> campaign in 2025.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Sydney Sweeney\u2019s jeans ad: How did we get to a culture war over this?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

That campaign was heavily criticised for appearing to use the language of eugenics, with Sweeney saying in a now-deleted video: \u201cGenes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality, and even eye colour. My jeans are blue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several months after the ad\u2019s release, the actor acknowledged her silence on the controversy had only \u201cwidened the divide\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was honestly surprised by the reaction,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m against hate and divisiveness.\u201d \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Olympic athletes have come out in force to condemn a sports betting advert featuring actor Sydney Sweeney in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1471,42,43,2124,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-624263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-gambling","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-sydney-sweeney","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}