Lottie McGuinness benched 112kg, filmed it, and put the clip next to Sydney Sweeney’s near-naked sports ad.
“Respectfully, Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport really look like,” the Team GB powerlifter wrote.
Sweeney, 29, appears in the minute-long campaign for prediction platform Novig wearing almost nothing, with sporting equipment arranged to cover her.
Female athletes turned on it quickly, accusing the brand of selling women in sport as something to look at rather than something to watch.
McGuinness, 24, has achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism.
She competes for Team GB in the women’s up to 61kg category and finished fourth on her Paralympic debut at Paris 2024.
A written complaint was never going to do it, she said, as reported by Creatorzine.
“When I saw an advert presenting such a narrow idea of what a woman’s body should look like, I felt compelled to respond,” the Harrogate athlete said.
“I wanted to show the complete opposite: a woman who doesn’t have a conventional body, who is incredibly strong, and who is proud of that.”
112kg, and the caption that came with it
The footage she reposted was filmed at a para powerlifting competition in July 2025.
“I shared it again because I wanted to put it alongside the conversation happening around the advert and show people what a woman’s body can actually achieve and show myself lifting and benching heavy weights,” she said.
“At that competition, I was competing in para powerlifting, doing what I love and using my body for something incredibly powerful.”
The caption did the rest.
“Women are truly incredible, and I think it’s important to show young girls that our bodies are capable of so much more than simply being looked at,” she wrote.
“Because the reality of women’s bodies is far more incredible than any advert could show. We can be strong.
We can be powerful. We can push boundaries. We can lift things that are twice our bodyweight.
“Today, I benched 112kg as a woman in a strength sport. This is what my body can do.
And honestly? I think that’s pretty bloody incredible.”
That lift sits close to double the ceiling of her competition category.
“I used to say I wanted to be tall”
The confidence is recent. The shame came first.
“Growing up, I never imagined that I would become a Paralympian,” she said.
“In fact, when people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I used to say ‘tall’, because I was ashamed of my condition.
It was seeing women like Ellie Simmonds competing at the Paralympics that showed me what was possible and gave me the dream of becoming a Paralympian myself.”
That is the reason she posted, she said.
“What worries me is that young girls are still being shown that there is one particular way a woman is supposed to look.
I want girls to see women who are strong, muscular, disabled, different and completely unapologetic about who they are.
I don’t want another little girl with a disability growing up wishing she was somebody else.
I want her to see women like me and think, ‘Maybe I could do that.'”
Strangers, phones, and a coping mechanism
Off the platform, the reaction to her body is less generous.
“Sadly I have to watch where I head out in town, as I will have young men make fun and take photos and mock who I am,” she said.
“I’ve learnt to deal with it and I pretend I am Taylor Swift and they are the paparazzi.”
She said the sport rewrote how she sees herself.
“I spent years wishing my body was different. Now I look at it and see the body that allows me to bench over 100kg, compete for my country and become a Paralympian.
I don’t want to be smaller. I don’t want to hide. I don’t want to look like everybody else.”
Not a pile-on
McGuinness was clear that the actress was not the target.
“It’s not about attacking Sydney Sweeney personally.
It’s about the message we put in front of young women,” she said.
“I know how much representation can change someone’s life because I’ve lived it.
Ellie Simmonds gave me the dream of becoming a Paralympian.
Now I want to be part of that representation for somebody else.”
Why It Matters
Brand campaigns no longer end with the campaign.
They generate a second layer of content made by the people the campaign talked over, and that reply often travels further than the original spot.
Athletes with phones are creators whether they use the word or not, and a 112kg bench press filmed on a competition floor is a cheaper, more credible piece of media than a studio shoot with a Hollywood budget behind it.
For creators watching, the mechanic is worth studying: she did not argue with the ad, she answered it with something the ad could not do.
Sweeney has been at the centre of advertising rows before, and campaigns built on her image have drawn criticism for more than a year.
Novig, a newer name chasing attention in a crowded prediction market, got attention.
McGuinness has not said whether the post is a one-off or the start of something louder.
Neither Novig nor Sweeney’s representatives have responded publicly to her.
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