No Guarantees! Supporting Athletes to Reduce the Risk of Unintentional Doping From Supplement Use

KEY POINTS
- Athletes’ use of supplements is highly prevalent across sport and competitive levels. High prevalence is combined with indiscriminate use. This remains a concern in sport as it can lead to negative health effects and the risk of committing an anti-doping rule violation.
- Consequences of committing an anti-doping rule violation through supplement use are significant for competitive athletes (e.g., ineligibility from major competitions, loss of medals and funding) due to the principle of strict liability (if it is in the athlete’s body, the athlete is responsible for it).
- The principle of strict liability interacts with a growing and professionally marketed industry that is poorly regulated. Consequently, competitive athletes can find themselves in a vulnerable and risky position when it comes to consuming supplements.
- Where risk-benefit analysis supports the use of a supplement, it is critical that athletes adhere to risk minimized supplement use guidance (RMSUG) published by a professional body or organization (e.g., International Olympic Committee Consensus Statement on Supplements).
- Athletes must have the capability (e.g., knowledge and skills), opportunity (e.g., physical access, social support) and motivation (e.g., beliefs and habits) to adhere to RMSUG.
- Adopting a behavioral approach to understanding adherence to RMSUG helps us identify what needs to change to protect athletes from unintentionally doping through indiscriminate supplement use.

https://www.gssiweb.org/docs/default-source/sse-do...