Female athletes accuse Sydney Sweeney ad of sexualizing women in sports

An advertising campaign featuring American actor Sydney Sweeney has sparked widespread backlash from female athletes who say it is sexualizing women in sports.

In the ad for the sports prediction market platform Novig, Sweeney appears with little or no clothing, covering parts of her body with strategically placed footballs and other sports apparel.

Many female athletes criticized the ad on social media and called it disrespectful to women.

“I can’t describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this,” four-time Olympic swimming gold medalist Ariarne Titmus wrote on Instagram. “How do we live in a world where monetizing a woman’s body and sexualizing women’s sport is still a thing?”

British sprinter Amy Hunt addressed the actor in a post-race interview with the BBC on Sunday after finishing fourth in the 200 meters at the Ultimate Championship in Budapest, Hungary.

“Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like,” she said, looking at the camera. “Muscles, hard work, sweat, blood, tears.”

Former U.S. gymnast Gracie Kramer called the ad infuriating.

“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,” she said on Instagram.

Kramer posted stories featuring female athletes training with the caption: “What a woman in sports looks like.”

Sofie Fella, a Chinese-German rugby player, said female athletes can be role models for girls and women because they manage to “untangle” from society’s ideals of beauty and femininity.

“And that’s why that Sydney Sweeney ad is so disrespectful to every female athlete in the world,” she said in an Instagram post.

Novig didn’t immediately answer an email seeking comment. A publicist for Sweeney also didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

In an apparent reference to the criticism, Sweeney over the weekend posted a series of covers from ESPN The Magazine’s “Body Issue,” an annual special edition that showed athletes posing nude or semi-nude in a celebration of the diversity of bodies.

Sweeney, a two-time Emmy nominee, starred in and produced last year’s “Christy,” a biopic of American professional boxer Christy Martin.

This is not the first time her brand partnerships have sparked debate; her 2025 American Eagle campaign, which played on the homophones “jeans” and “genes,” previously triggered widespread online discussion.

FILE - Australia's Ariarne Titmus poses with her gold medal after winning the women's 400-meter freestyle final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, July 27, 2024, in Nanterre, France. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis, File)

Sydney Sweeney poses for photographers at the Armani beauty event during the 83rd edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray began the week in the NFL concussion protocol, continuing his recovery from an illegal hit to the head that forced him out of his first game with the team in the first quarter.

Murray arrived on Monday at Vikings headquarters “feeling pretty good,” according to coach Kevin O'Connell, but it was far too soon to assess his chance of playing on Sunday at Chicago.

“We'll defer to the medical folks and that protocol for how the week goes,” O'Connell said. “We'll just take it a day at a time.”

Murray's debut with Minnesota lasted 11 plays. At the end of a third down run that ended well short of the sticks, Murray had the right side of his helmet smacked hard by Green Bay safety Javon Bullard's lowered shoulder with the quarterback already ducking toward the turf to try to avoid contact. Bullard was penalized for unnecessary roughness.

Murray eventually walked off slowly under his own power, but Carson Wentz took the rest of the afternoon and helped lead the Vikings to a comeback victory by scoring the last 29 points of the game.

Murray had three of his last four seasons with Arizona cut short by significant lower-body injuries, a torn ACL in his knee in late 2022 and a mid-foot sprain in 2025.

As for how long the Vikings are willing to wait this week for Murray to exit the concussion protocol before determining whether he can start or if Wentz will, that's not yet clear. Because quarterbacks already wear red non-contact jerseys, Murray could potentially get significant practice repetitions before he's fully cleared.

Murray took part in team meetings and video review of the Green Bay game on Monday.

“We'll just see how he's doing and take it a day at a time and make that determination when the time comes,” O'Connell said.

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray, center, is tackled by Green Bay Packers' Lukas van Ness, left, and Javon Bullard, right, during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray, center, walks off the field with staff after suffering an unknown injury during the first half of an NFL football game against the Green Bay Packers Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray (1) scrambles under pressure from Green Bay Packers linebacker Edgerrin Cooper (56) during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Bailey Hillesheim)