Link: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/sep/14/ariarne-titmus-comments-sydney-sweeney-sexualising-womens-sport

The campaign, for US sports prediction market company Novig, depicts Sweeney in minimal to no clothing while she pretends to play several different sports.

It has been widely criticised for sexualising women’s sport, with retired Olympic swimmer Ariarne Titmus saying she thought this type of “bullshit” marketing was a thing of the past.

“I can’t describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this,” the four-time Olympic gold medallist wrote on Instagram. “Not 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 – teamwork, friendship, dedication, excellent, unity …

“How do we live in a world where monetising a women’s body and sexualising women’s sport is still a thing?”

First jeans now women's sports, two things that have never been sexualised before she came around! Someone stop her!

Water polo silver medallist Tilly Kearns wrote, “I absolutely fking hate Sydney Sweeney’s new sports ad”, while world champion boxer Skye Nicolson said the backlash was about making a “mockery” of women in sport rather than judging how women look.

“There’s a big difference between looking ‘sexy’ because you do sport compared to use sex to sell ‘sport’,” she wrote in an Instagram story. “There is nothing wrong with looking good and doing sport and there’s nothing wrong with embracing your femininity while also being a badass athlete.”

Novig and Sweeney are the beneficiaries of the attention, which is similar to the outrage caused by American Eagle’s “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” campaign in 2025. That campaign was heavily criticised for appearing to use the language of eugenics, with Sweeney saying in a now-deleted video: “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality, and even eye colour. My jeans are blue.”

I can not bring myself to care.

Cared enough to leave a comment though, didn't ya?

Ok, Titmus compares sexy body posing to "kick in the face" but it is all somehow Sweeney's fault. Puritanism is stupid, mkay?

I long for the day that women athletes are respected as the hard working, badasses they are and not looked at for how they make a man’s peepee feel 😫

Maybe read the article? There's blame for Novig here as well. Sweeney chooses these projects, they're not forced on her. Criticism is valid for those choices.

It's telling that there are so many women athletes speaking out against this ad campaign. This is not how they want to be viewed, this isn't how they want their sport to be viewed.

Criticism is valid for those choices.

No. That criticism is dumb. Completely dumb. The same way they could shout "How dare she to wear green socks?!" or "Her hair is of wrong length! How dare that Sweeney to humiliate all sportswomen that way?!"

We should shut up and allow women to be objectified to sell sports gambling? Is that really the message you're pushing here?

Yep, it’s because people don’t take women’s sports seriously. I remember in high school, all the football and soccer players laughing at us playing field hockey, because “real sports^tm”^ don’t wear skirts 🙄

let women to do what they want.

Women aren't immune from criticism.

people don’t take women’s sports seriously.

As evidenced by the absolute tantrums people have been throwing about the WNBA lately. The only time they want to take any interest in women's sports is to mock women.

These athletes deserve so much better. They work incredibly hard and have a lot to show for it that gets overlooked.

Eh? Yes, they aren't. I state that Titmus' criticism towards Sweeney is dumb and based on completely illogical idea of puritanism. Can I critique Titmus as long as she's not "immune from criticism?" Can I?

You can criticize her and people are allowed to disagree with you.

Sweeney is making a mockery of women athletes with this ad campaign. You're welcome to keep defending her doing so, but again, people are allowed to form opinions about you based on that.

lots of bad faith bullshit in these comments, stinks like incel.

Sports Prediction == Degenerate Gambling

And I guess we should just ignore and disregard what actual women athletes are saying about this? Because they seem to really not like it.

Shouldn't we be listening to them?

Her career will soon be over and she will regret everything. I'm praying for her demise.

MAGA Barbie undermining women in sport and oversexualizing them just to appeal some incels with a gambling addiction. Can't say I'm surprised by now, honestly.