A professional swimmer is feuding with a fitness influencer who accused her of mocking a man at the gym. After being flooded with hate, she's clapping back.

• A competitive swimmer was accused of mocking a man at the gym by fitness influencer Joey Swoll.
• Swoll's post led hundreds of fans to direct hate at the athlete, Nika Godun. 
• Godun responded by saying Swoll took her original video out of context. 

A professional swimmer defended herself after she was called out for laughing in her video of a young man lifting weights in the gym by fitness influencer Joey Swoll. 

Swoll, who has 6.8 million followers on TikTok, has repeatedly gone viral for denouncing creators who have filmed people — usually men — at the gym. Swoll typically duets or stitches creators' videos, assessing the situation and often siding with the men in the clips, saying he believes there is a difference between someone glancing at a woman in the gym and a person being creepy. 

On June 6, Swoll made a TikTok in response to a video posted by competitive Russian swimmer Nika Godun. The clip, which Swoll appeared to have recorded from one of Godun's now-expired Instagram stories, showed her zooming in on a young-looking man lifting a weight in a rushed manner, as she giggled in the background. 

In his assessment of the situation, Swoll said he thought Godun was mocking the man with an "arrogant" laugh.

"Does he have bad form? Yes, it's just a kid," Swoll said, going on to suggest that Godun should either have tried to teach the young man how to lift the weight properly or avoided filming him altogether. 

"Filming him to make fun of him to post on social media is never an option, and you're a professional athlete. You should know better," Swoll added. 

The fitness influencer also said that he messaged Godun on Instagram to call out her behavior, sharing screenshots of messages purportedly from the athlete, which told Swoll to "lighten up" and which defended the practice of "people watching" because it can be funny. 

Swoll's TikTok was met with a hugely supportive response from commenters, who said they agreed with the influencer's concerns. 

"This is sad. Pros especially should set a better example," wrote one commenter. 

In the past, Swoll's posts have elicited apologies from the creators he has criticized, but in this instance, Godun released a statement on Instagram defending her actions and saying Swoll took her video out of context. 

Godun wrote that she personally knew the young man in her video, as he is also a swimmer, and said was filming him while he was deliberately goofing off in training while his coach wasn't looking instead of doing the exercise properly. 

"I posted a video with a caption 'me on a Monday morning' saying that I'm like this kid because I adore his 'I'm tired and I don't give a fuck' energy," she wrote. 

She also referenced a number of hateful comments she received on her Instagram page following Swoll's post, saying the influencer exposed her to millions of people who turned against her "without using their brains." 

Godun's post only seemed to elicit more negativity, as thousands of commenters re-echoed Swoll's initial accusations against her and said they did not believe her explanation for making the post. 

In a statement given to Insider, Godun said she believes Swoll is "using his followers to spread the hate in order for his videos to go viral," even though it is often "at the expense of someone's reputation." 

Swoll did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. 

Swoll's content has proven to be very divisive in the past, as his critical responses to other creators have previously resulted in those creators receiving hate comments. One TikToker told Insider that after Swoll made a video about her, she became the target of doxxing and death threats.

Critics of Swoll say they believe his fans sometimes use the influencer's content to spread misogynistic rhetoric, particularly relating to videos where he criticizes female creators for filming men.

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