Ariarne Titmus says the backlash to her criticism of Sydney Sweeney's Novig advertisement was bigger than the praise that followed it. On a podcast episode published Oct. 24, the four-time Olympic gold medallist said she got “double the amount of hate” after speaking out about the ad.
The reaction matters because Titmus did not frame the issue as a celebrity spat. She said the campaign, which showed Sydney Sweeney naked with sports equipment covering her body, raised questions about how women are portrayed in sport. Her original response was blunt: “Initially, I thought that it was a kick in the face to any woman that took sports seriously.”
That is why the Novig Sydney Sweeney debate has kept traveling well beyond the ad itself. Titmus revisited her objections on the Something To Talk About podcast after already drawing criticism for them, and she said she felt “sad” for Sweeney as the argument widened into a test of how people judge sexualized advertising versus women who call it out.
The pushback also brought a sharp defense from Charley Hull. In an interview published Oct. 22, Hull said Sweeney was doing her job and argued that people objecting to the ad should consider their own social media habits. She questioned whether athletes condemning the campaign were applying the same standards to revealing photographs they post themselves.
Hull's comments and Titmus's response show why the controversy has not settled. Titmus said the ad made her think more deeply about the way women are represented in sport, while Hull argued that a pretty woman in an advert is not automatically a problem. That split has kept the argument alive even after the campaign first drew attention, and it explains why searches around Novig Sydney Sweeney continue to land on the same question: whether the ad crossed a line or simply used a model in a way the market already accepts.
For now, Titmus has put a number on the reaction she faced, and it is not a small one. Her claim that she drew roughly twice as much hate as support suggests the response to her criticism was strong enough to eclipse the original point she was trying to make about women in sport.
