Right now injectable prescription weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic are not banned in international sport.
But it’s safe to say they are very much on radar of the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) for potential performance enhancing abilities and non-therapeutic abuse.
In fact, with the 2025 World Conference on Doping in Sport taking place this week in Busan, South Korea, the topic is expected to feature prominently.
Semaglutide, more commonly marketed under brand names Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus, comes from a powerful class of drugs called GLP-1, which can be used as appetite suppressants by slowing down the digestive process.
Not without some irony, semaglutide was first developed in 2012 for the treatment of type 2 diabetes by Danish pharmaceutic company Novo Nordisk—the driving force behind the all-diabetes pro cycling team of the same name.
‘If you can improve your weight-to-power ratio you’re going to have a benefit’
Today the use of GLP-1 products such as Ozempic and Wegovy continues to explode around the world and it’s little wonder athletes are also paying attention.
“I’m sure some (athletes) would have tried it to lose a few kilograms, no question,” Professor Olivier Rabin, WADA Senior Director of Science and Medicine, commented when asked about the potential for non-therapeutic abuse by The Observer in the UK earlier this year.
“If you can improve your weight-to-power ratio you’re going to have a benefit in cycling, running, and possibly in swimming as well,” he continued, before acknowledging GLP-1 products could still be added to the Prohibited Substances list in the lead-up to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
For that to happen however, WADA would need to find that GLP-1 products fail at least two of three markers:
- They have the potential to enhance performance
- They pose a health risk to athletes
- They violate the spirit of sport.
With no ban in place just yet, it seems the current evidence remains unclear—but that doesn’t mean it won’t become much clearer, soon.
Professor Olivier Rabin explained that when other substances have been on the WADA monitoring program in the past, they have typically moved from being ‘monitored’ to ‘prohibited’ once evidence shows athlete use goes well beyond therapeutic reasons.
One relatively recent example is the painkiller Tramadol, which was first added to WADA’s monitoring list in 2012 and finally banned by the international cycling body, UCI, in 2019 following revelations of wide-spread use in the pro peloton.
“The (WADA) monitoring program allows us to look at those substances in urine samples and see if we detect patterns of abuse,” Professor Rabin said.
‘In the past you really needed to starve’
Rabin also explained that WADA seeks to detect products that have been taken by entire sporting teams at the same event, a clear indication of non-therapeutic use.
“That’s typically the abuse of a substance,” he said.
“For now we don’t have that information with GLP-1 products, but we are collecting the information so we will see.
“If in 2026 and 2027 we collect information that shows that GLP-1 agonist semaglutides are being abused in sport, they could be banned before the Los Angeles Olympics,” Professor Rabin revealed, confirming WADA will continue to monitor for possible misuse of semaglutide in-competition and out-of-competition in 2026 along with other drugs such as tirzepatide, another diabetes medication.
“In the past to lose weight you needed to be under calorie restriction and you really needed to starve. With GLP-1 you can eat normally and you’re going to lose weight, so that’s a big change,” he said highlighting the clear appeal this could have to athletes.
Indeed, given weight can be such a critical performance marker in many sports, particularly those skewed towards endurance athletes, the attractions are obvious and increasing—as is the debate around the fairness and safety of their use.
In just one example earlier this year, there was considerable speculation around the noticeable weight loss of 2025 Tour de France Femmes winner Pauline Ferrand-Prévot.
While the 33-year-old explained she had shed four kilograms in the lead-up to the prestigious race through a rigorous and closely-monitored diet, the reaction demonstrated a climate of rising concern around the issue of athlete health and weight loss nonetheless.
Every time an athlete returns to competition lighter and leaner than before, eyebrows are almost inevitably raised.
For now, athletes are free to use semaglutide as they—and their medical advisors—see fit, just like the rest of society.
How long that remains the case is an entirely different story.