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This is what women in sport look like
Confirmed
Kramer, an athlete featured in the ad, told BBC World Service's Newshour show she "did not expect" the reaction to her post and "just wanted to uplift women and remind them that this is not the only thing that matters." However, the backlash has been significant, with many female athletes posting videos of themselves competing or training to highlight the frustrations and struggles they have faced throughout their careers.
British cyclist and Olympic champion Sophie Capewell MBE, rugby players Lisa Neumann and Ellie Boatman, and Australian water polo Olympian Tilly Kearns are among those who have spoken out against the ad. "Unfortunately being objectified pretty much my entire career, it made me feel strong enough to post about this and to stand up for the women that don't want to be objectified and don't want to be looped into this unfortunate narrative that's been pushed for a long time," Kramer added.
Sofie Fella, a Chinese-German rugby player, said female athletes can be role models for girls and women because they manage to "untangle" from society's ideals of beauty and femininity. "I’ve spent my entire life competing in a sport where female athletes have been oversexualized, reduced to our bodies, and forced to fight to be taken seriously for what we can actually do," she said on Instagram.
The ad has gone viral online, with many female athletes using it as a platform to share their own stories and experiences. "It's not necessarily that people are upset with someone having autonomy, it's the fact that that seems to be the only narrative that is directed around women in sports, or that's what gets more popularity," Capewell told BBC Sport.
What's confirmed
- "Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like," Hunt said in her post-race interview with BBC Sport.
What's still developing
- The advert has gone viral online and features American Sweeney naked but covering parts of her body with various pieces of sporting equipment.
- "I think it's quite powerful, the amount of women who've come out and said something," Capewell told BBC Sport after her post gained attention.
- An advertising campaign featuring American actor Sydney Sweeney has sparked widespread backlash from female athletes who say it is sexualizing women in sports.
- Many female athletes criticized the ad on social media and called it disrespectful to women.
- In the ad for the sports prediction market platform Novig, Sweeney appears with little or no clothing, covering parts of her body with strategically placed footballs and other sports apparel.
- “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 addressed the actor in a post-race interview with the BBC on Sunday after finishing fourth in the 200 meters at the Ultimate Championship in Budapest, Hungary.
- Instead, it has started a much bigger conversation about how women are represented in them.