Female athletes criticize Sydney Sweeney's sexualized betting ad as setback for women in sport

Dozens of athletes have taken aim at a highly sexualised advertisement for a betting company featuring actress Sydney Sweeney, accusing it of belittling women in sport.

The ad shows Sweeney in little to no clothing as she plays mock tennis, golf, baseball and ice hockey, holds basketballs, footballs and a soccer ball, and boasts about punters being able to bet on "just sports".

"So they wanted to show just sports," she says while perched topless on top of a basketball hoop.

After saying "sports" nine times, she appears topless on a pool table, before saying: "You can't trade this, I just look good here."

The advertisement has been widely criticised, particularly by female athletes, for setting back women in sport.

American gymnast Gracie Kramer was one of the first to respond with an Instagram reel reading: "idk what Sydney Sweeney was doing, but this is what a woman in sport looks like."

"Because it really is that deep," she wrote in the caption, kicking off a trend among some of the best athletes around the world.

A slew of Australian Olympians are part of the chorus, with even the AIS posting: "THIS is sport", featuring a number of women athletes with the same backing track as the ad.

Swimming great Ariarne Titmus commented on the ad on Instagram, where it has been viewed over 33 million times, describing it as "an absolute joke".

"I can't describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this," the four-time Olympic gold medallist wrote on her stories.

"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 … the list goes on.

"But how do we live in a world where monetising a woman's body and sexualising women's sport is still a thing? To take the mickey like this, I thought we were genuinely moving past this bullsh*t.

"What is this teaching young men and women of today? Sydney Sweeney, do better."

Titmus's replacement as swimming's middle distance queen, Lani Pallister, also posted saying she had "truly no words", while Hockeyroos goalkeeper Joc Bartram said she was disappointed to see women's sport being sexualised.

"In a world where it just feels like women's sport is being recognised for the talent and skill that it involves rather than the sexualisation of women, this new add (sic) by @sydney_sweeney feels so out of touch," said Bartram, who was named goalkeeper of the tournament at the recent World Cup where the Hockeyroos finished fourth.

"There are so many different ways to get people's attention rather than sexualising women's sport once again. For another woman to bring female athletes down to such a level when we have fought so long to be recognised by our male counterparts and are still fighting to prove we belong everyday, just leaves me speechless.

"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!"

Australian Olympians like Bree Masters, Lauren Ryan and Liz Clay, and water polo silver medallist Tilly Kearns, were among those posting to highlight what women in sport actually look like.

"I absolutely fking hate Sydney Sweeny's new sports ad," Kearns said.

"Like what are we doing … so much worse than I imagined too."

Australian Olympic boxer and WBC bantamweight champion Skye Nicolson joined the trend while acknowledging the backlash was giving the company "exactly what they wanted".

"But honestly these companies need to do better. Stop sexualising women in sport," she wrote.

In an apparent response to the criticism, Sweeney posted on her Instagram stories a number of images from ESPN's famous Body issue, showing numerous nude elite athletes, including tennis legend Serena Williams, UFC icon Ronda Rousey, NFL great Rob Gronkowski and NBA champion Karl-Anthony Towns.

It is not the first time Sweeney has received criticism for an advertising campaign, with a 2025 appearance with American Eagle boasting about her "great jeans" praised by US president Donald Trump.

The advertisements received backlash for alluding to eugenics and the belief in genetic superiority of blonde-haired, blue-eyed white people.

When asked about the backlash and criticism that "specifically in this political climate white people shouldn't joke about genetic superiority", Sweeney was non-committal.

"I think that when I have an issue that I want to speak about, people will hear," she told GQ.

Just as this controversy has boosted an otherwise little-known company into the international spotlight, the American Eagle controversy boosted the company's stocks, although the apparel retailer has slumped recently.