Over the past few days, actress Sydney Sweeney has received criticism for a sports betting ad for a platform called Novig. While fans, media, and even recognizable female athletes have had their say on this matter, Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham, who has seemingly been in the headlines more than Caitlin Clark this season, has made no comments yet.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
The controversial sports betting advert featured Sweeney with different kinds of sporting equipment, like football, baseball, pool, and a soccer ball.
The rest of the sports world remains locked in serious debate over the controversial ad campaign. Most notably, a wave of female athletes have aimed at Sweeney, believing that the imagery reinforces the objectification of women rather than celebrating their athletic ability and countless achievements in the sport.
Four-time European champion Amy Hunt referenced the advert after she ran a season’s best 22.10 seconds to finish fourth in the 200m final at the Ultimate Championship in Budapest.
“Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like,” Hunt said in her post-race interview with BBC Sport.
Four-time Olympic gold medalist Ariarne Titmus also had a strong opinion against Sweeney’s ad campaign.
“I can’t describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this,” 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?”
While the Euphoria star is facing backlash from all around the world, Cunningham’s self-deprecating humor in a past meeting with Sweeney suggests why she may not have commented yet.
One example is Cunningham and Sweeney’s brief encounter last year when they ran into each other at the NASCAR Cup Series event in Phoenix, Arizona, on November 2, 2025. Following their link-up, Cunningham posted a photo with a caption that instantly broke the internet.
“One of us forgot our t—ts at home,” Sophie wrote in her post on X.
Former US gymnast Gracie Kramer also took offense at the advert, posting her thoughts on Instagram and sharing her own experiences as a female athlete.
“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,” Kramer said on her Instagram, while also posting images of female athletes training alongside the caption. “What a woman in sports looks like.”
However, Sydney Sweeney did not appear fazed. In fact, she took to Instagram stories to share photos of female sports stars wearing similar outfits on ESPN magazine covers.
WNBA legend Sue Bird was also present in them, along with others like Serena Williams, Ronda Rousey, Megan Rapinoe and Caroline Wozniacki.
Sweeney also posted a video on Instagram to help launch the sports trading app and captioned it “just sports.”
Still, Cunningham’s decision not to comment on the controversy could also be because she is locked in for the WNBA playoffs, which will start at the end of this month, and wants no disturbance while she and the Fever begin their quest to try to clinch the title for the first time since 2012.