Sydney Sweeney is being heavily criticized by popular female athletes for her controversial nude sports ad. The Housemaid star was recently featured in the ‘Just Sports’ campaign by Novig, the sports-trading company.
Days after Sweeney’s ad went viral, notable female sports personalities have openly called her out for stripping down in a sports-trading company’s campaign. Australian water polo player and Olympic silver medalist Tilly Kearns took to Instagram and shared a clip from her games. “I absolutely f—–g hate Sydney Sweeney’s new sports ad,” she wrote over the video.
“Like what are we doing … so much worse than I imagined too. Here’s some real women sports content,” Kearns added in captions.
American gymnast Gracie Kramer also shared a clip on Instagram in which she can be seen competing. “Idk what Sydney Sweeney was doing, but this is what a woman in sports looks like,” she wrote in the video. “Because it is really that deep.”
Canadian skier and 2026 Olympian Cassidy Gray posted a TikTok video and brutally lashed out at Sweeney for doing the nude sports ad. “I think that what she did was idiotic, and I think it was senseless.”
“I think it was in her (Sydney’s) head probably some funny joke, but it’s not a joke when your life is actually you being a female athlete and being like sexualized or not taken seriously or not given the same opportunities,” she added. “It pisses me the f— off. And it is that deep.”
The backlash quickly spread beyond track and field
Ever since her nude ad went viral on social media, Sydney Sweeney has been getting heavy backlash. However, the actress doesn’t seem too concerned about the negative reactions. In fact, she recently responded with more nude photos of herself from the ad’s photoshoot.
“It’s gamedayyy,” Sweeney wrote on Instagram while clapping back at her critics. Additionally, she shared a bunch of stories featuring skin-revealing campaigns by famous female athletes, including Serena Williams, Ronda Rousey, Sue Bird, Megan Rapinoe, and Caroline Wozniacki.
The 29-year-old also posted male athletes, namely Myles Garrett, Rob Gronkowski, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Jason Kelce, who were part of nude sports photoshoots.
Following the controversy, Novig’s CEO, Jacob Fortinsky, issued a response in an interview with Front Office Sports. Speaking on the ad campaign, he said, “We felt this was a way that was playful and light, but also sort of, you know, positioned us as taking sports more seriously and trying to conduct ourselves with responsibility and integrity.”
Originally reported on ComingSoon.
