Sydney Sweeney has struck a nerve with athletes around the world

Sydney Sweeney has struck a nerve with athletes around the world. This ad has sparked a huge conversation about women, sport and sexuality. It quickly snowballed into a social media trend led by Olympic gymnast Gracie Kramer. And now athletes across sports are following suit. Their criticism? That the ad sexualizes women athletes and risks undoing years of progress towards athletes being seen for their performance and not their bodies. We acknowledge as a society and in a marketplace that we have moved beyond using sex sells strategy in sport and it's been damaging in particular if we look at the statistics for what is motivating young girls and women to stay involved in sport or drop out. What's interesting is how many Olympians and Paralympians are weighing in. Athletes who likely have more freedom to speak up, like Canadian gymnast Ellie Black, who made a statement that shifted the conversation. Rather than focusing on Sweeney, she used the moment to celebrate women who actually compete in sport. And perhaps that's the bigger question here. Who actually gets to control the way that women in sport are represented? Some feminist perspectives argue that women should have the agency to celebrate their bodies and their sexuality without it automatically being seen through a lens of sexism. But let's remember, this was a sports betting ad. In an industry dominated by male consumers. And while Sweeney says in the ad, No betting on wars or deaths and no politics. Sports has never really been separate from culture or politics. So perhaps the silver lining to all of this is that women athletes now have the platforms to challenge how they're represented in the media. So while the ad may have triggered this conversation, the athletes are now the ones driving it. It's funny how that works.