Sydney Sweeney Appears To Respond to Backlash Over Nude Sports Ad With Photos of Athletes Who Also Posed Naked

Sydney Sweeney has appeared to hit back at criticism of her nearly nude sports advertisement by reminding critics that some of the world's most famous athletes have also posed naked for major campaigns and magazines.

The 29-year-old actress shared a series of images on Instagram Stories on Sunday showing sports stars including Serena Williams, Ronda Rousey, Sue Bird, Megan Rapinoe and Caroline Wozniacki posing nude or semi-nude for ESPN The Magazine's celebrated 'Body Issue'.

Male athletes also appeared among her posts, including Rob Gronkowski, Myles Garrett, Karl-Anthony Towns and Jason Kelce.

Sweeney did not explicitly say the images were a response to the controversy, but their timing came days after female athletes criticised her new Novig campaign for sexualising women's sport.

Athletes Slam Sweeney's 'Just Sports' Campaign

Novig unveiled its first national advertising campaign on 9 September, featuring Sweeney nude or barely clothed while using footballs, basketballs, hockey equipment and other sporting gear to cover herself.

The campaign plays on the company's 'Just Sports' slogan, promoting Novig as a prediction market focused exclusively on sporting events rather than politics, wars or deaths.

Sweeney is more than a celebrity face for the company. She has joined Novig as a strategic partner and equity holder and was involved in developing the campaign.

'The campaign was about embracing a fun idea,' Sweeney said when it launched, describing the concept as a way to 'cut through the noise' and focus entirely on sport.

But several elite sportswomen saw the advert very differently.

Australian swimming great Ariarne Titmus said she was 'infuriated' by the campaign and called it a 'kick in the face' to women who had dedicated their lives to perfecting their sport.

British sprinter Amy Hunt also pushed back after competing at the Ultimate Championships, telling the BBC: 'Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like.'

She pointed to the muscles, hard work, blood, sweat and tears behind elite competition, arguing that women's sport isn't always meant to look glamorous or sexy.

Other athletes also joined the criticism, sharing footage of training, competition and sporting achievements to contrast with the Novig advertisement.

Sweeney Points to ESPN's Famous Nude Athletes

Sweeney's apparent response drew on a very different tradition of sports nudity. ESPN's annual 'Body Issue', which ran from 2009 until 2019, photographed elite athletes nude in images intended to showcase their physiques, strength and athleticism.

By reposting those photographs, Sweeney appeared to raise an obvious counterpoint: nude imagery and elite sport have coexisted in mainstream media for years, including in photographs featuring some of the biggest female athletes in the world.

Critics, however, draw the distinction on context. ESPN's project centred on athletes and the bodies they had developed through competition, while Sweeney's Novig commercial uses sexualised sports imagery to promote a commercial prediction platform.

Sweeney herself has offered no written rebuttal addressing that distinction. Instead, she let the old photographs make the apparent argument for her — placing Serena Williams, Ronda Rousey and other naked athletes alongside her own provocative campaign and leaving viewers to decide whether the backlash reflects a meaningful difference in context or a double standard.