Water polo is a swimsuit sport, but rather than simply being seen as athletes, female players are often judged by how their bodies look. Even a 2023 Australian survey found that 37% of young people said body concerns had stopped them from taking part in physical activity or sport. Now, Sydney Sweeney’s controversial Novig ad has made the conversation around women’s bodies in sport even louder. Among those speaking out is Olympic silver medallist Tilly Kearns, who has faced body-shaming for years and says seeing the ad only added to her frustration. But her criticism is not aimed at Sweeney herself.

“The disappointment comes with this ad being on such a grand level [and] perpetuated by one of the most famous and recognisable women in the world,” Kearns told nine.com.au. Despite winning two silver medals for Australia at the Paris 2024 Olympics, Kearns believes years of hard work and success can still be pushed aside when the focus turns back to how women look.

That 58-second Novig advertisement, titled “Just Sports,” features Sweeney in a series of sports-themed scenes while wearing little clothing and using sporting equipment such as footballs, basketballs and a tennis racket to cover parts of her body. The campaign promotes Novig’s sports prediction platform. For Kearns, the ad only makes an issue many female athletes already deal with feel even bigger.

“It shows that still, in 2026 the easiest way to get male money and attention is through desirability and the s*x appeal of women,” she said. “Female athletes spend their whole careers trying to flip that equation – to be taken seriously for our skill, expertise, talent, strength. An ad like this undoes it in less than a minute.”

Kearns fears that this kind of messaging could also make the s**alisation of female athletes feel more normal, particularly for young girls who are still finding their place in sport. Interetsigly, her comments also brought a wave of backlash online. Kearns said strangers accused her of being jealous of Sweeney, while others attacked her body, appearance, intelligence and sporting achievements.

But she rejected the idea that jealousy was behind her criticism. “It’s disappointment, not jealousy. It’s a critique of a creative decision, not Sydney Sweeney herself,” Kearns said. She also made clear that she does not begrudge Sweeney for making money from the campaign.

As she says, “Made more off one ad than most of us make in lifetime of full-time training. Pointing that out isn’t jealousy, it’s just true. Power to her.” Kearns’ criticism is about something bigger than one celebrity or one advertisement. She believes female athletes should be given the space to be recognised for their ability, strength and achievements without their appearance becoming the main focus.

She also believes people do not need to be professional athletes or have a huge platform to challenge the way women are s**ualised. Speaking up can start with a conversation between teammates, friends or family members. For Kearns, the problem is the fact that even after women prove themselves in sport, they can still find themselves being judged by how they look.

“The worst of it is keyboard warriors online, not anyone I actually deal with day to day, but I can tell you first hand that two Olympics deep, it doesn’t stop because you’ve proven yourself,” she said. And that is the message Kearns wants to change, so the next generation of girls can look at female athletes and see what they are capable of, rather than worry about how their bodies will be judged.

And Kearns is not the only female athlete who has taken issue with the campaign. Swimmers, sprinters, gymnasts and athletes from several other sports have also pushed back against the way the ad presents women in sport.

Female athletes push back against the message behind Sweeney’s Novig ad

Four-time Olympic swimming champion Ariarne Titmus was among the strongest voices. Calling the ad “an absolute joke,” Titmus said, “I can’t describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this.” She called it “a kick in the face to every woman who has dedicated her life to perfecting her craft” and questioned how “monetising a woman’s body and s**alising women’s sport” was still being used as a way to attract attention.

British sprinter Amy Hunt also spoke out after competing at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship. Looking into the camera during a BBC interview, she told Sweeney, “This is what women in sport look like,” before pointing to “muscles, hard work, sweat, blood, tears.” Hunt added that being a woman in sport “is not pretty. It’s not glamorous. It’s not s**y all the time.”

Former American gymnast Gracie Kramer took a different approach. She shared a video of herself competing with the caption, “Idk what Sydney Sweeney was doing, but this is what a woman in sport looks like.”

Australian boxer Skye Nicolson also made the distinction between an athlete choosing to look bold and a company using their bodies to sell a sports product. “There’s a big difference between looking ‘s**y’ because you do sport compared to using s*x to sell ‘sport’,” she wrote. The reaction has therefore stretched well beyond one sport.