Ozempic pens (GLP-1’s) Have Entered the Athlete World.

When Serena Williams returned to competitive tennis this summer (2026), there was plenty to talk about. The 23-time Grand Slam champion was back on court at 44, playing at Wimbledon after stepping away from the sport in 2022.

But alongside the inevitable questions about her comeback came another conversation: her weight loss and her reported use of a GLP-1 medication.

Could GLP-1 medications become the next way athletes manipulate their weight?

Williams is an interesting example precisely because her situation is not the same as an athlete taking a drug simply to become lighter. Her reported use sits within a medical and personal context that we cannot—and should not—reduce to assumptions about performance.

But her visibility illustrates something important for anyone working in eating disorders and body image.

Sport already has a complicated relationship with weight

Athletes don't need GLP-1s to be under pressure to become smaller.

In endurance sports, aesthetic sports, weight-category sports and sports where power-to-weight ratios are emphasised, body size can become deeply intertwined with identity and performance.

The problem is that the line between “optimising performance” and “losing weight” can become very blurry.

We know that low energy availability and RED-S (under-fuelling) can have serious consequences for athletes, affecting everything from bone and hormonal health to immunity, recovery and psychological wellbeing. Eating disorders and disordered eating are also well-established concerns in weight-sensitive sporting environments.

Now introduce a medication designed, among other things, to reduce appetite/‘food noise’.

For some athletes it could potentially make an already difficult relationship with food even more complicated.

The athlete who isn't hungry

An athlete doesn't necessarily need to feel hungry in order to need food.

Training creates an enormous demand for energy. The body needs fuel not only to run, swim, cycle or lift, but to repair muscle, maintain bone health, support hormones and recover between sessions.

If appetite is significantly reduced, an athlete will eat less.

And that is where GLP-1s intersect with the world of eating disorders gets uncomfortable.

We don’t assume that every athlete taking a GLP-1 is misusing it.

But we should be asking whether someone with a history of restrictive eating, compulsive exercise or significant body-image distress is an appropriate candidate—and whether their relationship with food is being assessed professionally alongside their physical health.

And this isn't just hypothetical

Researchers at Loughborough University surveyed 114 sports-medicine physicians working across 93 sports and 38 countries. Twelve per cent said they were aware of athletes using GLP-1 drugs despite having no medical need for them. Physicians reported particular interest in their use for meeting weight limits and losing weight following injury.

That doesn't tell us how many athletes are actually using these drugs.

But it does suggest that if athletes begin to see weight loss as something that can be achieved pharmacologically, rather than through increasingly restrictive diets, the cultural implications could be significant.

The uncomfortable question

We've spent years trying to challenge the idea that thinner automatically means healthier.

Yet sport can still reward thinness in ways that are disguised as performance science.

A lighter athlete may be praised for becoming “leaner”.

A smaller body may be described as “more efficient”.

A dramatic change in weight may be celebrated without anyone asking what happened to the athlete's relationship with food along the way.

GLP-1s don't create that culture.

But they make it easier to participate in.

What happens when an athlete who already feels they need to be smaller is given a medication that makes it easier not to eat?

For an athlete with a genuine medical need, the answer may be entirely different.

For an athlete with a disordered eating history, it could be much more complicated.