US actor Sydney Sweeney is facing a backlash for appearing in a controversial advert for a sports prediction company. Sweeney appeared for a viral commercial for Novig in which her nude body is covered by footballs, basketballs, and other sports equipment, as she tells users they can bet on “just sports”. The ad has been viewed more than 22 million times in the first two days of its release, prompting criticism from female athelets.
Amid this, story of track and field star Allyson Felix who launched her own shoe business after breaking up with Nike in 2019 is once again doing the rounds on social media with users commenting "This is what women in sports looks like, watch and learn."
When Allyson Felix broke up with Nike in 2019 after she said the company wanted to pay her 70% less following her pregnancy. She has since been invested in raising awareness around health-care inequities facing Black mothers.
Felix left her longtime partnership with Nike after a dispute over the company's lack of maternity protections following the birth of her daughter in November of 2018. Because of that, Felix decided not to re-sign with Nike a year later. She eventually signed with Gap's Athleta brand, before branching out on her own brand. What she did next changed tables for her- co-founded her own women's footwear brand: Saysh. The story of Fellix is viral when female athletes are calling out Sydney Sweeney for sexualisation of women in sport, and how they are being defined by their appearance rather than their achievements as sportswomen.
