Sydney Sweeney's Nude Novig Ad Draws Backlash From Olympic and Pro Female Athletes

Sydney Sweeney is an equity holder and strategic partner in Novig, a federally regulated U.S. prediction market that lets users trade contracts on sports outcomes, according to the New York Times. The company launched nationwide last month, per NBC Philadelphia, and picked football season to roll out its "Just Sports" campaign starring Sweeney.

The ads, released last week, show Sweeney naked or nearly naked, covering herself with footballs, basketballs, a tennis racket and hockey pads while mock-playing various sports. One shot has her lying nude atop a basketball, according to CNN. The company's Instagram reel of the campaign drew 37 million views in four days, CNN reported.

The response from female athletes was fast and loud. Four-time Olympic swimming champion Ariarne Titmus called the ad "a kick in the face to every woman who has dedicated her life to perfecting her craft," writing on Instagram that she couldn't understand why "monetising a women's body and sexualising women's sport is still a thing."

British sprinter Amy Hunt used a live BBC interview after finishing fourth in the 200 meters at the Ultimate Championship in Budapest to respond directly: "Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like. Muscles. Hard work, blood, sweat, tears," referencing training partner Melissa Jefferson-Wooden's winning time of 21.47 seconds, the fourth-fastest 200m in history.

Gymnast Gracie Kramer, Olympic swimmer Lani Pallister, sprinters Bree Rizzo and Bree Masters, water polo silver medallist Tilly Kearns, boxer Skye Nicolson, Australian surfer Felicity Palmateer, track cyclist Sophie Capewell and rugby players Lisa Neumann and Ellie Boatman all posted their own responses, mostly training and competition footage captioned with variations of "this is what a woman in sport looks like." The Australian Institute of Sport joined in with a montage of archery, gymnastics, boxing and softball.

Boxer Skye Nicolson drew a distinction that captures the core of the athletes' complaint: "There's a big difference between looking 'sexy' because you do sport compared to use sex to sell 'sport,'" she wrote on Instagram, adding there's nothing wrong with embracing femininity while competing.

Novig has not backed down. In a press release, the company said the campaign was built to bring its "Just Sports" message to life with "confidence, humor and a playful edge," cutting through prediction-market clutter to put the focus "entirely on sports." Novig co-founder and CEO Jacob Fortinsky said "sports fans deserve a prediction market built specifically for them." Sweeney herself said in the release the concept was meant to be simple.

Amid the backlash, Sweeney posted images to her Instagram Stories of professional athletes who have posed nude for sports photography in the past, including Serena Williams, Ronda Rousey, Megan Rapinoe, Caroline Wozniacki, Rob Gronkowski and Karl-Anthony Towns, according to ITV and the New York Times. She has not directly addressed the athletes' criticism.

That move points to a real tension in this debate. Nude athlete photography has a long, largely uncontroversial tradition, most notably ESPN's annual Body Issue, where athletes pose nude to celebrate the strength and diversity of real competitive bodies. Sweeney's defenders could reasonably argue the backlash isn't really about nudity itself, since athletes have posed nude for decades without this kind of outcry.

The athletes' counter is that this isn't the same thing. Nicolson's distinction is the crux: those photo series featured actual competitors' bodies as the subject, while Novig hired a non-athlete actress to sell a product using her body, not her sport. Titmus and Palmateer argue that distinction matters for girls deciding whether sport is about performance or appearance.

Novig is a federally regulated prediction market that lets users trade contracts on outcomes rather than place wagers with a bookmaker, a legally distinct category from traditional sportsbooks. Several outlets, including CNN, describe it loosely as a "sports betting" product, but the company and the New York Times make this distinction clear. Novig also touts a 21-and-over age requirement it says sets it apart from rivals.

This isn't Sweeney's first ad controversy. Her 2025 American Eagle "jeans/genes" campaign drew accusations of eugenics undertones, which American Eagle and Sweeney both rejected, with Sweeney telling People she was "surprised by the reaction" and doesn't "support the views some people chose to connect to the campaign."

No regulator, advertising board or league has announced any action over the Novig ad. Novig says the campaign will keep running nationally through the fall with additional creative planned. Whether the backlash dents Novig's user growth, or instead amplifies it the way American Eagle's stock jumped roughly 25% after its own controversy per CNN's reporting, remains an open question with football season just getting underway.