Amy Hunt has doubled down on her criticism of Sydney Sweeney after she posed naked in a betting advert.
Hunt had accused the actress of sexualising women’s sport after she featured in a promotional video for bookmaker Novig in which she used various pieces of sports equipment to cover herself up.
The advert has drawn widespread condemnation from across the world of women’s sport, in particular from female Olympians.
This included British sprinter Hunt, who used her post-race interview at the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship on Sunday to criticise the advert.
On Tuesday, she then appeared on GMB where she doubled down on her criticism and highlighted the potential negative consequences of Sweeney’s actions.
‘I think when we’re trying to provide role models for young people and young women in sport, we really want to show that it’s about what your body can do, not so much what it looks like,’ she said.
Amy Hunt has doubled down on her criticism of Sydney Sweeney after the actress posed naked in a betting advert
Sweeney was accused of sexualising women’s sport in the hugely controversial advert
‘When we see the stats of 64 per cent of young girls drop out of exercise and sport before they reach the age of 16, we don’t need to place any kind of barrier whatsoever in their way in terms of providing the opportunity and the empowerment for them to still exercise, whatever that looks like, professional or kind of just going to do a park run with your friends.
‘So it’s about empowering young girls and young women and young people to show that you really can just get out there and you don’t have to worry what you look like. You don’t have to worry about what you’re wearing.’
When pressed on whether the advert could impact how men view female athletes, Hunt agreed and added: ‘That was a big thing this year for us with the introduction of new broadcasting regulations, in showing the correct or the more appropriate angles of women competing.
‘And it being an empowering thing, because I want to race and I want to enjoy it and I want to run as fast as possible. So it’s really important to me that I feel comfortable and I show other people that you can feel comfortable.
‘But also we get a choice of what to wear. Like, we’re not kind of forced into wearing the briefs.
‘But yeah, it’s important to show kind of young people that it’s okay to be whoever you want to be, to wear whatever you want to wear, to look however you want to look, and you can achieve your dreams.’
Hunt has received significant praise for speaking out since Sunday and the athlete added that Sweeney may have inadvertently helped her cause.
‘The reaction has almost outweighed the moment,’ she said. ‘Because the first thing I saw was all of the positive compilations of women in sport. And that’s also what my sister said.
‘She said she’d had so many friends kind of reach out to her and say: “thank you so much for saying something”, because it’s been more positive. It separated itself from the moment entirely.
‘And it’s not anything personal against that actress. It’s more the intention. It’s just moved into a completely different sphere now where we’re able to kind of have all these different things celebrating women in sport.’
During her initial interview on Sunday, which came after Hunt finished fourth in her 200m race, launched her criticism of Sweeney.
The 24-year-old, who became the first athlete to win four gold medals at a single European Championships earlier this year, said: ‘It was incredible to be part of such an incredible race.
‘Sydney Sweeney, this is what women is sport look like. 21.4 [seconds, the winning time of Melissa Jefferson-Wooden], muscles, hard work, sweat, blood, tears. This is a beautiful evening.’
The sprinter – who has previously called herself ‘sexy and aggressive’ – added that the reality of being a female athlete is rather different than Ms Sweeney’s advert suggests.
Hunt continued: ‘Obviously we’ve seen in the last 24 hours everything about the Sydney Sweeney ad, you know, and when you’re a woman in sport, it’s not pretty. It’s not glamorous. It’s not sexy all the time, definitely.
‘There’s some low moments. Even turning up to this championship, my period started yesterday, so that’s not really ideal, and that’s not ever what you try to really plan for.’
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