Sydney Sweeney’s latest promotional partnership with the sports betting application Novig has ignited a widespread backlash among international elite athletes and sports figures, drawing sharp criticism over the commercialization and sexualization of women’s athletics.
The Novig Campaign and the Core Controversy
The controversy centers on a digital promotional campaign for Novig, a sports trading and prediction platform where Sydney Sweeney serves as both a strategic partner and shareholder. Throughout the brief spot, she repeats the phrase “Just sports,” directing viewers to focus exclusively on opinions and sports betting markets rather than active participation.
According to promotional materials released by the platform, Novig operates as a prediction market requiring a minimum user age of 21. However, the commercial’s aesthetic choices quickly eclipsed the platform’s regulatory disclosures, triggering immediate pushback across the global sports community.
Elite Athletes Condemn the Commercialization of Women’s Sport
Professional sportswomen from swimming, gymnastics, water polo, surfing, and boxing swiftly utilized social media platforms to denounce the campaign. Critics argued that the advertisement undermines decades of athletic achievement by reducing female competitors to objects for marketing purposes.
Ariarne Titmus, a four-time Olympic gold-medalist swimmer who retired from competition in 2025, issued a scathing critique of the commercial. Titmus characterized the advertisement as a direct mockery of women who dedicate their lives to athletic excellence, questioning how the normalization of monetizing women’s bodies and sexualizing female sports persists in modern media.
Australian field hockey player Jocelyn “Jock” Bartram echoed those sentiments online, expressing frustration over the persistent need to combat superficial representations while female athletes continuously fight for professional recognition alongside male peers. Additional condemnations were voiced publicly by American gymnast Gracie Kramer, Olympic swimmer Lani Pallister, water polo player Tilly Kearns, big-wave surfer Felicity Palmateer, boxer Skye Nicolson, and British sprinter Amy Hunt, a recent winner at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham.
The Grassroots Social Media Backlash
The professional athlete outcry rapidly catalyzed a broader digital movement across Instagram and TikTok. Users and amateur sportswomen adopted the trending phrase “This is what a woman in sport looks like” to counter the imagery presented in the Novig campaign. The hashtag filled feeds with video content highlighting real physical training—including weightlifting, swimming strokes, sprinting drills, and athletic throws—to redefine public perceptions of women in sports independent of commercialized tropes.
While industry analysts note that the fierce debate generated substantial visibility for the Novig application, sports advocates maintain that the conversation must shift toward respecting female athletes as competitors rather than marketing props.
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