The Aporia · Canadian female athletes join backlash against Sydney Sweeney's nude sports betting ad: 'It's 2026, stop it'

Canadian female athletes join backlash against Sydney Sweeney's nude sports betting ad: 'It's 2026, stop it'

Read the original at Toronto Star ↗

Cite

APA MLA Chicago

Mohibuddin, S. (2026, September 15). Canadian female athletes join backlash against Sydney Sweeney's nude sports betting ad: 'It's 2026, stop it'. Toronto Star. https://www.thestar.com/sports/canadian-female-athletes-join-backlash-against-sydney-sweeney-s-nude-sports-betting-ad-it-s-2026-stop-it/article_094ebdc1-fa03-4d21-894c-8f0a252aa613.html

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

Quick Summary

Female athletes in Canada are joining international condemnation of a provocative betting ad featuring actress Sydney Sweeney, who appears mostly nude while covering herself with sports equipment to promote Novig, a prediction market platform. Canadian sprint canoeist Sophia Jensen and Olympic alpine skier Cassidy Gray have shared videos criticizing the campaign as disrespectful and harmful to women's progress in sports. Team Canada also released a video highlighting the accomplishments of female athletes to contrast with Sweeney’s ad, which has faced widespread backlash online since its release last week.

Written by AI on 2026-09-15, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

Female athletes criticized Sydney Sweeney's ad for Novig, which featured her posing nude with sports equipment. British sprinter Amy Hunt addressed the ad after finishing fourth in the 200 meters at the Ultimate Championship in Budapest, saying "Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like: muscles, hard work, sweat, blood, tears." Four-time Olympic swimming gold medalist Ariarne Titmus wrote on Instagram that she was infuriated by the ad. Former U.S. gymnast Gracie Kramer said she had spent her life competing in a sport where female athletes are oversexualized and reduced to their bodies. The ads sparked widespread backlash from female athletes who claimed it sexualizes women in sports, with some posting images of nude athletes training hard as role models for young people and highlighting the importance of focusing on what an athlete's body can do rather than its appearance. Sweeney later shared photos of nude athletes on her Instagram Stories, including Serena Williams and Ronda Rousey, without addressing the criticism directly.

Written for “Sydney Sweeney Ad Backlash” on 2026-10-31, grounded in this article and the 22 other(s) covering the same event.

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This article reads leans left and hedges 0% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.

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How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

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Claims extracted

sentences that state something as happening or true

Uncertain

0 of 20 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")

Leaning

Leans left

of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate

Publisher signals

64/100

Toronto Star's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.

Outlets on this story

Entertainment

Same framing elsewhere

articles that frame the event the way this one does

Analyzed 2026-09-15 · how these are computed

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Publisher

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Who wrote this

Samm Mohibuddin

16 article(s) here · 0 carrying a prediction

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Topics

Canadian Instagram Olympic Team Canada TikTok

Subjects

Sweeney PERSON · 7× Canadian NORP · 3× Novig ORG · 3× Ariarne Titmus PERSON · 2× Instagram ORG · 2× Team Canada ORG · 2× TikTok ORG · 2× American NORP · 1× Sydney Sweeney PERSON · 1× U.S. GPE · 1×

Narrative

The minute-long online video, shared widely by the American actress on her Instagram page last week, shows Sweeney covering parts of her body with various sports equipment as she promotes Novig, an online betting company that labels itself as a “sports prediction market” platform in the U.S. “Think you know sports?” Sweeney asks in the clip.

framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-15

2026-09-15 · Toronto Star

Canadian female athletes join backlash against Sydney Sweeney's nude sports betting ad: 'It's 2026, stop it' · assertive framing

Claims (20 extracted, 0 hedged)

Some Canadian athletes are taking a stance online over the portrayal of women in sports after a betting company’s provocative ad campaign featuring a mostly nude Sydney Sweeney sparked fierce backlash. asserted

campaign → take → backlash

Sweeney → share → clip

“Just sports,” Sweeney says repeatedly. asserted

Sweeney → say → ?

Female athletes worldwide have shared messages and videos in response under the title of “Dear Sydney Sweeney,” accusing the actress and company of hyper-sexualizing women in sports. asserted

athletes → share → sports

Several athletes have contrasted Sweeney’s campaign with photos and videos of themselves competing, arguing that women’s bodies in sports should be associated with strength and athletic performance rather than used primarily as a marketing tool. asserted

bodies → contrast → tool

Australian Olympic swimmer Ariarne Titmus was among those criticizing the ad, while other athletes have described it as disrespectful to the progress women have made in sport. asserted

women → criticize → sport

“I can’t describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this,” four-time Olympic swimming gold medallist Ariarne Titmus wrote on Instagram. asserted

Titmus → describe → Instagram

“How do we live in a world where monetizing a woman’s body and sexualizing women’s sport is still a thing?” asserted

monetizing → live → sport

This was not the first time the “Euphoria” and “The White Lotus” star found herself in the midst of controversy. asserted

star → find → controversy

Last year, her American Eagle “good jeans” ad was widely criticized online as promoting eugenics, an outdated and discredited pseudo-science. asserted

ad → criticize → eugenics

Team Canada and Canadian athletes join the backlash Canadian sprint canoeist Sophia Jensen addressed the campaign with a video on TikTok captioned, “It’s 2026, stop it,” alongside hashtags including #womeninsports. asserted

It → join → womeninsports

Team Canada also joined in with a video captioned: “This is what women in sports look like.” asserted

women → join → sports

Twenty-five-year-old Olympic alpine skier Cassidy Gray, who won gold at the World Junior Championships, also shared her thoughts on TikTok in a video that garnered more than 350,000 likes and 3 million views. asserted

that → win → likes

“If you don’t think something is wrong with this ad that tells me you didn’t have to fight tooth-and-nail for every step of your career just to prove that you deserve it just as much as men,” Gray said. asserted

Gray → think → men

Sweeney and Novig respond asserted

Sweeney → respond → ?

Despite all the negative reaction, Sweeney appeared to defend her participation in the racy ad campaign by posting Instagram stories of covers from ESPN’s “Body Issue” which featured a number of professional athletes posing nude. asserted

which → appear → athletes

Novig also posted a few statements by Sweeney on its website. asserted

Novig → post → website

“The campaign was about embracing a fun idea” she said. asserted

she → embrace → idea

“The concept is simple: cut through the noise and put the focus entirely on sports. asserted

concept → cut → sports

The campaign brings that idea to life with confidence, humour and a playful edge.” asserted

campaign → bring → confidence