.png)
By Christine McLoughlin AM, Chair, Minerva Network
Women’s sport has earned respect. It shouldn’t have to keep asking for it.
The backlash to Sydney Sweeney’s recent sports betting advertisement matters less for the advertisement itself than for what it exposed.
It struck a nerve because women athletes have spent decades fighting to be recognised for achievement, leadership, performance and the sacrifice required to compete at the highest level.
For almost a decade, I have proudly led the Minerva Network, a national not for profit that supports 1,195 Australian sportswomen across 86 sports, who are mentored by 499 leading executive women who volunteer their time to provide opportunity for our athletes. During that time, I have watched women’s sport move from the margins to the mainstream.
The tipping point came at the MCG in 2020, when more than 86,000 fans watched Australia defeat India in the T20 Women’s World Cup Final. Since then, momentum has accelerated: more than 74,000 fans packed Stadium Australia for the Women’s Asian Cup Final; the 2026 Women’s State of Origin averaged a national reach of 2 million Australians per match, up 53% year on year; and AFLW crowds are trending 43% ahead of last season.
Young Australians now assume women’s sport belongs on the biggest stages because they have grown up watching athletes deliver world-class performances. That is a remarkable shift.
Yet behind every headline and sold-out stadium lies a harsher reality. Despite their achievements, sportswomen and their families, including athletes such as Ellie Carpenter and Cate Campbell OAM, are subjected to vicious trolling and abuse almost daily.
Many Australian players need to live, train and compete overseas to pursue professional opportunities that are either unavailable or not remunerated in Australia. Many elite sportswomen still fund significant parts of their own careers. They juggle study, work and training, managing injuries, setbacks, travel and uncertainty while carrying the expectations that come with representing their state or country.
Last week I attended the fourth annual Parliamentary Friends of Women in Sport event at Parliament House. Politicians gathered with athletes, sporting organisations and business leaders, and the message was bipartisan and unequivocal: women athletes matter not only for what they achieve on the field, but for the leaders they become beyond it.
Many of today’s women athletes will become tomorrow’s business leaders, directors, coaches, policy makers and advocates. They are captains, Olympians, Paralympians and world champions today – some will help shape the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the generations that follow.
That leadership pipeline is one of the most important and underappreciated stories in Australian sport.
This week, that progress was met with an advertisement that belongs in another era. If there is one positive, it is the response from women athletes themselves. They reminded us what women’s sport looks like in 2026, and that athletes now have the platform to define themselves.
Ariarne Titmus OAM called the ad a “kick in the face”. Lani Pallister OAM, Shayna Jack OAM (also Olympian Swimmers), Tilly Kearns (Stingers), Skye Nicolson (professional boxer) and Felicity Palmateer (big wave surfer) responded with images of athletes racing, training, boxing and competing. The Female Athlete Project, founded by Olympic gold medallist Chloe Dalton OAM, also called it out, as did Zali Steggall OAM MP, Australia’s most successful alpine skier.
When a young girl watches a Matilda score in front of a full stadium, she sees possibility. When she watches a Paralympian such as Madison de Rozario OAM race, she sees barriers being broken. When she sees athletes recognised for their skill, determination and achievements, she learns that those qualities matter. That is the lasting power of sport.
The Sydney Sweeney debate will come and go. Another controversy will replace it soon enough. What should endure is a greater appreciation for the women who continue to transform Australian sport.
Our women athletes have shown how they want to be defined: as strong, powerful professionals with ambition, grit and resilience. They ask for, and deserve, respect – not because they are women, but because they have earned it.
Together we soar.
Christine McLoughlin AM is Chair and Co-Founder of Minerva Network, a not for profit and the only national organisation built to keep Australia’s women athletes in sport and to power their leadership beyond it.
