Olympian leads Nike boycott after transgender influencer models sportswear

A storm has erupted over Nike’s choice of ambassador for its new women’s sportswear with a swimming great boycotting the company.

Nike has been threatened with a boycott for using a transgender influencer to promote its sportswear for women.

The brand paid Dylan Mulvaney — who identifies as a woman but has not had surgery — to wear its sports bra and leggings.

But Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies claimed Dylan’s Nike-sponsored posts had set back attempts to protect women’s sport.

She said: “The ad feels like a parody of what women are — that Nike would do this feels like a kick in the teeth.

“The only way we can make these companies sit up and listen is to boycott with our wallet — it’s the only thing they listen to.”

Comedian and actor Dylan, 26, was born male but uses the pronouns “she/they” and has a huge following online, The Sun reports.

But her appearance in ads for Bud Light provoked a similar furore.

Sharron, 60, said she was a poor choice to promote sports bras as she had nothing to fill one.

And transgender US media personality Caitlyn Jenner, a former Olympic gold medal-winning decathlete, told Nike: “Stop trying to erase women.”

Dylan Mulvaney poses for fans on social media.

Dylan Mulvaney shared images from her latest workout with her TikTok supporters.

Nike said: “We welcome comments that contribute to a positive, constructive discussion. Hate speech will be deleted.”

Davies, 60, was just the latest to call for a boycott over the campaign, with other celebs taking the same action against Bud Light for putting Mulvaney’s face on cans to celebrate “365 days of womanhood.”

The silver medal-winning Olympian said that Mulvaney’s sponsored videos parading tight-fitting Nike workout gear “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-sportslike, that’s very unathletic.

“And it’s so frustrating when only 1 per cent of USA sponsorship dollars go to actual females in sport that they would do this.

“It just seems like literally a kick in the teeth, constantly.”

Sharron Davies poses before her return to reality TV. Pic Handout. Sport / Swimming / Alone.

Former Swimmer Sharron Davies remains a high profile figure in the UK. Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images.

Davies said it was “just so frustrating” to see Mulvaney fronting the campaign — insisting that the 26-year-old influencer hasn’t been through the challenges women face finding well-fitted sports bras.

“It doesn’t apply to Dylan Mulvaney … It just doesn’t make sense,” she said of the bra the influencer wore.

Davies repeated her longstanding calls for trans athletes to be forbidden from competing against biological females and instead have their own category.

“It’s also about finding a place for trans athletes,” she stressed.

“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.”

— This story originally appeared on thesun.co.uk and has been republished with permission