A commercial starring Sydney Sweeney has drawn fire from professional athletes who say it drags women's sport back to a place they believed it had left behind.
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Among the loudest voices are cyclists Demi Vollering and Maddy Nutt. One of the riders put it bluntly: "I thought we were way past the sexualisation of women in sport." The comment captured a frustration echoed across the backlash, which has spread from sports outlets to mainstream national coverage.
The ad promotes a prediction market platform and features Sweeney in a campaign built around provocative visuals. The response has been swift and broad. The New York Times reported on the athlete pushback, USA Today ran an opinion piece examining the real reason the spot angered so many, and Yahoo Sports highlighted a four-word reaction from Kelly Stafford, wife of NFL quarterback Matthew Stafford.
The controversy deepened when a prediction market CEO said Sweeney was "driving" the visuals in the ads — a remark that shifts part of the creative responsibility toward the actress herself. That claim has not settled the debate; if anything, it has widened it, raising questions about how much say talent has over campaigns that trade on their image.
The dispute lands in a broader reckoning over how women athletes are marketed and how gambling-adjacent brands use sex appeal. Athletes who have spent years fighting for serious coverage say ads like this undercut that work.
What remains unanswered is whether the platform or Sweeney will respond directly to the criticism. Neither has made a full public statement addressing the athletes' concerns, and the campaign is still running.
