News/Commentary

Female athletes unload on Sydney Sweeney’s steamy sports ad — CEO fires back

September 15, 2026 | | Print Article

Sydney Sweeney’s newest ad campaign once again triggered leftists, as female athletes in particular were “infuriated” while turning a blind eye to a glaring double standard.

In recent weeks, the actress known for shows like “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Euphoria” expanded her portfolio with promotions of her own business ventures. While she released a scantily clad commercial promoting her lingerie brand SYRN, it was actually her gambling partnership that caused meltdowns as she appeared mostly naked pushing sports betting.

“Think you know sports? Prove it. Novig is just sports. So, they wanted a show,” the actress can be heard saying in the ad for Novig, where she used various pieces of strategically placed athletic equipment to censor her naked body.

Reactions to the commercial drew outrage without borders as female competitors from around the world sounded off on social media. Australian Olympic gold medalist Ariarne Titmus expressed, “I can’t describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this. How do we live in a world where monetizing a woman’s body and sexualizing women’s sports is still a thing?” while British sprinter Amy Hunt said, “Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like. Muscles, hard work, sweat, blood, tears.”

Former American gymnast Gracie Kramer opined, “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.”

Similarly, the ladies of ABC’s “The View” saw fit to weigh in after airing other female athletes talking about how “disappointing” and allegedly “damaging” Sweeney’s provocative ad was to them. The co-hosts presented an argument of “it’s okay when they do it” before contending the actress had figured out the formula to monetize outrage.

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Elevating the selective outrage from athletes, corporate media outlets like The New York Times and NBC News rolled out stories about “backlash … for sexualizing women in sports.”

Responding to the criticisms required no actual words from Sweeney who was previously praised by Hall of Fame Christy Martin for the months of work put in to accurately portray the boxer in her biopic. Instead, her Instagram story merely featured past images of professional athletes posing nude for publications that were celebrated.

Likewise, former national champion gymnast and XX-XY Athletics founder Jennifer Sey reacted to the Times,’ The Athletic with nude images of athletes captioned, “I feel like these same female athletes would jump at the chance to be in the ESPN Body Issue. No? All seems like much ado about nothing.”

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Sey also shared an image depicting the bane of Bud Light, Dylan Mulvaney, appearing topless while holding sparklers with the caption, “I also feel like they’d cheer for this and call it ‘stunning and brave.'”

The negative response to Sweeney’s newest ad was reminiscent of the backlash that followed her American Eagle denim campaign, “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans.”

Truly turning up the heat on snowflakes pushing DEI and body positivity models, pushback on the ads featuring a vibrant, young, white woman exponentially increased after it was discovered that Sweeney’s voting record showed her registered as a Republican.

“Oh, now I love her ad,” said President Trump himself, as others suggested of the “uniquely reviled … culture war villain” at the time, “All hot girls vote Republican!”

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Kevin Haggerty
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