Three naked women? This is Sydney’s top women’s sports awards... not the Playboy mansion

LAST night saw Australian women in sport celebrated and acknowledged for their achievements at the annual awards at Establishment.

Sally Pearson took out the main award of the evening for her 100m Hurdles effort at Glasgow this year, her second honour in the space of a week.

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So while all of our best female sports stars swapped running shorts for gorgeous dresses there were three ladies in particular that drew attention away from what the awards were about.

Three models were body painted with the Australian kits of a swimmer, volleyball player and gymnast.

I feel it’s probably very important to mention that it takes a lot to shock me - I’m of the Miley Cyrus generation and I don’t care that they’re naked, I have zero issues with it. Nor do I intend to make this piece into some form of woman-bashing because that is not what I’m about. I really do believe we need to support and encourage each other.

The models pose up at the Women in Sport Awards.

What is kind of weird is that they chose this event in which to hire the girls and for what reason? If I’m honest, it’s all a bit Playboy Mansion-ish for my liking, in fact I believe that’s how Hefner met one of his girlfriends. She was a painted model at one of his parties.

There is also a chance that their presence could upset a lot of people, everyone has different opinions and morals and I’m sure there are women out there who could put together an intellectual argument on why they shouldn’t have been there in the first place.

Sally Pearson, Michelle Bridges and Laura Whaler.

Sally Pearson wins the top award at the Women in Sport Awards.

The Women in Sport awards is meant to be about supporting and encouraging one another to succeed in a male-dominated industry. As a sports journalist and a woman I couldn’t support the cause more.

So why bring in naked models? Surely it’s not the event for them to be posing on the red carpet. Doesn’t that send the wrong message to those who may just see the red carpet pictures?

There are so many strong, talented and beautiful women in sport who work hard to get the recognition they deserve which is why I think these models take away from the main message of the event.