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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Emma John

Sydney Sweeney’s cartoonish provocation has sparked a culture war but let’s just admit sport can be sexy

Sydney Sweeney on a billboard in Times Square in New York
Sydney Sweeney’s advert for a sports betting site caused a storm of controversy this week. Photograph: Michael M Santiago/Getty Images

Have you seen the 40-second video that will change the way you think about women’s sport, women’s bodies, just, you know, women? It’s been unavoidable on social media this week – brazen, unapologetic, dominating the algorithm like an AI kitten hacking a banana-bread recipe while lip-syncing to Cardi B. I for one have enjoyed it at least 50 times already.

It starts with some carefully curated passive-aggression – “Dear Sydney”, “Hey Sydney”, “Respectfully Sydney” – and follows up with clips of what, in its own words, “a woman in sport actually looks like”. It shows its subject pounding the treadmill or powering down the back straight, flooring a rival with a tackle or a roundhouse kick, lifting weights or throwing herself through the air. It is, inevitably, soundtracked by Dua Lipa. Training Season is getting a serious bump this week.

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