Olympic champion Sophie Capewell has spoken out after a sports betting website released an advert featuring actress Sydney Sweeney, mostly undressed.
Capewell is among a host of female sports figures who have criticised the advert, in which the Euphoria actress appears mostly naked, alongside assorted pieces of sporting equipment.
“I’m sure you’ve seen Sydney Sweeney’s ad, but imagine a world where women are seen for what they can do not just what they look like,” Capewell’s social media video implored, with text over the track sprinter working out, training and racing.
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“[Imagine a world where] it’s cool to be an athlete, it’s good to be strong, where sexulised represenration isn’t the most popular way of seeing women in sport,” the text reads.
Posting the video, Capewell, an Olympic gold medallist and world champion, wrote: “This isn’t really about Sydney Sweeney. It’s about what gets attention and why.”
Women from a wide range of sports have spoken out against the advert. American gymnast Gracie Kramer appeared to start the trend by posting a similar montage, stating: “I don’t know what Sydney Sweeney was doing, but this is what women in sport look like.”
The advert, for American sports prediction brand Novig, went viral over the last week, and has faced immediate criticism. British athletics track sprinter and four-time European champion, Amy Hunt, told the BBC “Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like”, after finishing fourth in the 200m at the Ultimate Championships. She added: “en you’re a woman in sport, it’s not pretty. It’s not glamorous. It’s not sexy all the time, definitely.”
Sweeney has joined the brand as a “strategic partner and equity holder”.
“I think it’s quite powerful, the amount of women who’ve come out and said something,” Capewell told BBC Sport . “It’s giving a very specific picture of women around sport and I think that’s the challenging thing. Why is that the face of the campaign that is associated with sport?
“And that’s the way you want to portray a woman, instead of it having, I don’t know, an athlete or anything else that’s more sport-centric.
“It’s not necessarily that people are upset with someone having autonomy, it’s the fact that that seems to be the only narrative that is directed around women in sports, or that’s what gets more popularity.”
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