Sharron Davies, an Olympic swimmer is leading a boycott of Nike for its partnership with a transgender influencer to promote its female sports clothing range.
Daily Mail reports that Dylan Mulvaney, 26, posed for a series of pictures and videos promoting the brand’s sports brassieres and leggings.
The move was a ‘step’ back after several sports bodies moved to give biological women their own protected category in competitions, according to Ms Davies, who won silver for Team Great Britain in the 400m individual medley at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
“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 told Dan Wootton Tonight on GB News.
“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 dollar goes to females in sport.
“That Nike would do this feels like a kick in the teeth.”
Advocating a boycott, she said: “We can protest. It’s what is left for us at the moment. No one seems to be listening.
“The only way we can make these companies and governments sit up and listen is to boycott with our wallet.
“It’s the only thing they listen to.”
Ms Davies argued it was not possible for a biological male to effectively promote products, such as bras, which have to work for women’s bodies.
She replied: “Dylan is advertising sports bras when there’s nothing to put in the sports bra – when actually it’s really important women get proper support when they do sport. It just doesn’t make sense.
“For a long time, Nike sponsored Allyson Felix, one of the world’s most incredible track athletes. Then, when Allyson got pregnant, they reduced her sponsorship by 70 per cent when she had something happen to her that happens only to women.
“Women are being treated with total disdain at the moment, particularly in the world of sport where physiology makes so much difference.”
