Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Canadian athletes speak out against controversial Sydney Sweeney ad

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Canadian athletes speak out against controversial Sydney Sweeney ad · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: A provocative new sports betting ad campaign featuring actor Sydney
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Sweeney is sparking online backlash. Think you know sports?
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Prove it.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Sweeney shone in the nearly minute-long ad with little or
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: no clothing. Some prominent athletes are slamming it, saying the
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  Speaker 1: campaign sexualizes women in sports. In an apparent response, Sweeney
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: posted a series of covers from ESPN, the magazine's body issue,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: an annual edition that showed female and male athletes posing
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: nude or semi-nude. This certainly isn't the first time Sweeney
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: has sparked controversy with an ad. Last year, her Great
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Jeans American Eagle campaign also drew widespread debate online. Full
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: among the athletes criticizing Sweeney's ad, a Canadian Olympian who
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  Speaker 1: posted a reply on her social media.
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  Speaker 3: Think you know sports? Go ahead.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: And Madeline Skeezis joins us now from Oakville, Ontario, four-time
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  Speaker 1: Canadian women's figure skating champion. and she's represented Canada at
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  Speaker 1: two Olympics. Madeline, thank you very much for speaking with us.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: When you first saw the Sydney sweetie ad, what was
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: your initial reaction?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I was a little bit disappointed when I
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  Speaker 2: saw it to start. I think just because that kind
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  Speaker 2: of Marketing in general, I had hoped maybe too optimistically
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: that as a society, we'd moved away from that a
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: little bit. You know, choosing to use women's bodies in
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  Speaker 2: that way outside of a sporting context. I kind of
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: hoped we'd moved away from that, but obviously we haven't.
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  Speaker 2: And then from a sport context, I thought it was
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  Speaker 2: unfortunate that given all of the fantastic female athletes they
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: could have chosen to use, you can bet on female sport,
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  Speaker 2: on women's sports.
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  Speaker 4: They chose not to. I found that a little bit disappointing.
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  Speaker 1: We played the post you made on Instagram responding to
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  Speaker 1: the ad. How did that come about?
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  Speaker 2: Honestly, I'd seen a lot of my peers, a lot
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  Speaker 2: of female athletes posting about this, and I really saw
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  Speaker 2: it as an opportunity to kind of showcase what female
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  Speaker 2: athletes can do and what our bodies can do and.
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  Speaker 4: The kind of experiences we have being women in sport.
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  Speaker 2: I've had such a positive experience throughout my sporting career.
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  Speaker 4: I've had so many great friends.
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  Speaker 2: I've created so many great memories and gained so many
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  Speaker 2: skills and I saw it really as an opportunity to
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  Speaker 2: showcase this in in light of kind of seeing a
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  Speaker 2: version of sport that doesn't represent me and doesn't represent
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  Speaker 2: what I stand for and what I think 99.99% of
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  Speaker 2: female athletes believe to be our experience.
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  Speaker 1: Last time I checked, your Instagram post has been liked
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  Speaker 1: by more than 30,000 people, and there are lots of
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  Speaker 1: positive comments. But, of course, there's some critical ones, some
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: not particularly thoughtful and critical. But then there's a thread,
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  Speaker 1: and I'll give you an example of this and get
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  Speaker 1: your response. Somebody said to you, the ad is for betting,
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  Speaker 1: not women's sports, not even about women.
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  Speaker 4: It's just an ad.
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  Speaker 1: How would you respond to that?
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  Speaker 2: You know, I think there's a certain narrative around some
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  Speaker 2: of this stuff where people say, it's just this, it's
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: just that, it's not that serious. I think we saw
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  Speaker 2: that with certain things that happened during the Olympics, certain
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: things that happened.
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  Speaker 4: People said, it's just, it's not that serious. But it
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  Speaker 4: is that serious.
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  Speaker 2: Women and girls have very different experiences in sport than men.
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  Speaker 2: One in five girls will drop out of sport as
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  Speaker 2: a teenager. Two in five report having comments about their
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  Speaker 2: appearance negatively impact their decision to participate. only 19% of
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  Speaker 2: Olympic coaches for Canada in Paris were women. Like, it
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  Speaker 2: really is that serious. There are almost no female photographers
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  Speaker 2: at the Milan Olympics. Like, if you look across sport
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: in general, how many women are in leadership roles? How
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: many women are kind of taking some of these roles
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  Speaker 2: that traditionally went to men?
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  Speaker 4: Almost none, right? So it really is that serious.
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  Speaker 2: And it's not to me necessarily about the piece of
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  Speaker 2: media that prompted this, but... you know, it's kind of
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  Speaker 2: about sport in general and the world in general. And
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  Speaker 2: if one positive thing can come from it, I think
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  Speaker 2: it's that people are talking about what it's like to
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  Speaker 2: be a woman in sport and what it's like to
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  Speaker 2: work in the sports industry as a woman, right? So
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  Speaker 2: obviously the piece of media that prompted this, not the
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  Speaker 2: most tasteful thing I've ever seen. However, I think it's
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  Speaker 2: great that now it's given so many of us a
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  Speaker 2: platform to talk about the reality right now and what
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  Speaker 2: it's like to be a woman or a girl participating
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  Speaker 2: in sports.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I was going to conclude this interview by
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  Speaker 1: asking you what you hope would come out of this
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  Speaker 1: back and forth, of this public debate, but you answered
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  Speaker 1: it perfectly and eloquently with that last answer.
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  Speaker 4: So let's leave it there.
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  Speaker 1: Madeleine Skizis, multiple Canadian champion figure skater, thanks for speaking
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  Speaker 1: with us.
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  Speaker 4: Thanks so much. Thank you.