Olympic athlete Sharron Davies pushes for Nike boycott over advertising deal with trans influencer

Famed Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies called for a boycott of Nike after the sportswear brand partnered with a transgender influencer to promote its range of women's clothing that included a sports bra.

The 60-year-old British sportswoman explained that she felt very frustrated after watching Nike's campaign due to the "total disdain" that the sports brand showed towards women with this advertisement, so she decided to call on women to join her protest.

"The ad feels like a parody of what women are. In the past it was always seen as an insult to say, 'run like a girl' and here we've got someone behaving in a way that's very un-sporty and very unathletic and it's so frustrating when only 1 per cent of USA sponsorship dollars goes to females in sport," she said, adding that Nike doing that campaign felt like "a kick in the teeth."

"It's so frustrating. We take two steps forward with World Athletics and Swim England protecting women's sport and then Nike does this," she opined.

Davies commented that what is left at this point is to protest as she feels that "nobody" seems to be listening to or prioritizing the general public. The swimmer also explained that a good way to show discontent is to boycott Nike with "our wallet." It is "the only way we can actually make these companies and make governments listen," she said.

Special category for trans people in sports

Davies also called for transgender men to be banned from competing against biological women and insisted on the importance of trans athletes having their own category.

"It’s not about the sport not being for everybody — it absolutely is. It just has to be the right place. Let’s debate it and add categories if we need to. If we can’t talk about it, then we can’t resolve the problem," she said.