WNBA guard Sophie Cunningham broke from her fellow athletes on September 17, calling the backlash to Sydney Sweeney's Novig ad overblown. Sweeney partnered with the sports-prediction-market company as an equity holder, and her nude or nearly nude "Just Sports" campaign launched around September 9. Olympic and professional athletes including Ariarne Titmus and Amy Hunt spent the days after calling the ad sexist, and Sweeney lost more than 200,000 Instagram followers before regaining roughly half of them within days. On the September 17 premiere of her podcast "No Hesitation with Sophie Cunningham & Drew Hanlen," Cunningham questioned why other athletes were so angry and called the ad "inauthentic." Her comments split reaction again: some outlets called her take "gaslighting," others called it the take other athletes wouldn't say publicly.

1. Olympic and Pro Athletes Who Call the Ad Sexist (Ariarne Titmus, Amy Hunt, and Others)

They started this fight days before Cunningham spoke, and her comments haven't changed their view.

This insults every woman who fought for respect as an athlete. Four-time Olympic swimming gold medalist Ariarne Titmus wrote on Instagram: "I can't describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this," calling it "a kick in the face to every woman who has dedicated her life to perfecting her craft."

This is what women in sport actually look like. British sprinter Amy Hunt told BBC Sport: "Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like. Muscles, hard work, sweat, blood, tears."

A dozen more athletes made the same point in their own words. Former U.S. gymnast Gracie Kramer said sexualized ads like this "reinforce the exact narrative we've been trying to dismantle." Water polo Olympic medalist Tilly Kearns and boxer Skye Nicolson both said the ad has nothing to do with sport, rugby player Sofie Fella called it "disrespectful to every female athlete in the world," and Olympic skier Cassidy Gray called it "senseless" and "idiotic."

2. Sophie Cunningham (WNBA Guard, Indiana Fever)

She says the ad was never made for a women's-sports audience, so judging it as one misses the point.

She doesn't buy the outrage. Cunningham said on her podcast: "But why are girls mad? That is literally what she does... Why is anyone mad? It is a gambling ad: men, sports, naked women. Of course, that's going to draw attention."

She doesn't think Sweeney belongs here, either. Cunningham asked, "Does she even gamble on sports?" and called the campaign "inauthentic": "It's just so inauthentic."

She admits the discomfort, just not the blame. Cunningham said the ad "could kind of deflate women, because we've worked so hard to get a little bit of respect around here." But she argued it was built for sports bettors — a group her co-host estimated is roughly 75% male — not for a women's-sports audience. On the ad itself, she said: "Morally, I think it's kind of weird, but to each their own. Go do your thing, sis."

Her comments divided athletes, not united them. Some outlets framed her comments as "gaslighting" fellow female athletes; others framed her as "saying what other female athletes won't."

3. Marketing Analysts Split On Whether The Ad Worked (Adrienne Uthe, Olivia Bennett)

They're using this week's athlete-vs-athlete split to argue about whether the campaign actually paid off.

This chased attention, not a statement. Novig CEO Jacob Fortinsky said as much when the ad launched, framing it as a deliberate bet to raise the company's profile rather than a comment on women's sports.

This never really hurt Sweeney, one analyst says. Kronus Communications founder Adrienne Uthe, in comments published September 18, said the ad fits the image Sweeney has already built and isn't likely to damage her brand. But she cautioned that viral attention doesn't guarantee Novig gains customers.

This athlete-on-athlete fight is the real damage. Go Up senior account director Olivia Bennett, in the same September 18 piece, called the campaign "bad for women in sport" and said that when athletes themselves argue over it in public, "you have a much bigger reputational issue" than ordinary online criticism.

Where This Lands

Olympic and professional athletes still say the ad sexualized a sport they've spent their careers trying to get taken seriously, and Cunningham's comments haven't moved them. Cunningham says the anger has the wrong target: Novig built the ad for sports bettors, not for women's sports, and her fellow athletes are aiming at the wrong thing. Marketing analysts disagree on what her split even means for the brand — one says Sweeney comes out fine, the other says an athlete-on-athlete fight is worse for Novig than the original backlash. Neither Sweeney nor Novig has apologized or pulled the ad.

Sources