Elite athletes and sports nutrition experts are highlighting the growing role of supplements in high-performance sport, with Professor Graeme Close, a human physiology professor at Liverpool John Moores University, and Australian cyclist Nicole Frain stressing that products such as creatine can provide marginal gains when used alongside sound nutrition, training and recovery.
For athletes competing at the highest level, where fractions of a second or small improvements in power can determine the outcome of a contest, the attraction of supplements is understandable.
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Yet the message from specialists is not that supplements can replace good habits, but that they may provide an additional edge once the fundamentals are firmly in place.
Creatine has become one of the best-known examples. The naturally occurring compound is produced by the body and is also found in foods including meat and fish.
It helps supply muscles with energy during short, high-intensity efforts, making it particularly relevant to activities such as sprinting and strength-based exercise.
Professor Close said obtaining large amounts of creatine from food alone can be difficult.
“You would need the best part of a kilogram of raw chicken a day to get the amount of creatine you need,” he said, while noting that raw poultry itself is unsafe because of the risk of harmful bacteria.
Scientific literature supports the use of creatine in specific sporting situations.
The International Olympic Committee has identified creatine, caffeine, nitrate and several buffering agents among the relatively small group of supplements with good evidence for potential performance benefits.
The IOC also stresses that individual responses can vary and that supplements should be tested during training rather than introduced for the first time in competition.
Creatine’s modern rise in sport dates back to the early 1990s.
Research published in 1992 demonstrated that creatine monohydrate could increase muscle creatine stores, helping to reshape sports nutrition.
The supplement subsequently gained wider attention following the Barcelona Olympics.
By the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, estimates suggested that around 80 per cent of athletes had used or were using creatine.
That figure helped illustrate how quickly the supplement moved from a specialist nutritional intervention into the mainstream of elite sport.
However, the appeal of supplements extends well beyond creatine.
Athletes use different products to address nutritional deficiencies, provide convenient sources of energy, support demanding training schedules, assist recovery or pursue specific performance benefits.
The IOC has noted that supplement use becomes more common as the level of training and performance rises, although usage differs considerably between sports and individuals.
Professor Close, who oversaw nutrition during the British and Irish Lions’ 2025 rugby union tour, argues that athletes should resist the temptation to focus on supplements before establishing a strong nutritional base.
“Supplements are the ‘final piece of the jigsaw’ rather than a starting point,” he said.
Close said athletes who get the basics right are more likely to benefit from the smaller gains that supplements may provide.
“They’ve really nailed the 99 per-centers,” he said, referring to athletes who prioritise their overall diet before pursuing marginal improvements.
Frain takes a similar view.
The Australian cyclist said supplements should support an athlete’s existing preparation rather than be treated as a solution to fundamental weaknesses.
“I’m a pretty big believer that they are called sport supplements,” Frain said. “They are there to supplement the things you already do right.”
Frain’s approach reflects the broader position among sports nutrition specialists.
Eating adequately, training consistently, sleeping properly, recovering effectively and staying hydrated remain central to performance, regardless of whether an athlete uses supplements.
“I don’t think supplements are the answer to fix my problems,” Frain said, stressing the importance of “eating a balanced diet, training well, sleeping right, recovering well, hydrating” before adding supplements.
Research also suggests that supplement use among athletes is widespread.
A review of studies has found that elite athletes generally use supplements more frequently than non-elite and younger sporting populations, although reported rates vary substantially according to sport, gender and study design.
A survey of athletes in one NCAA Division I programme, for example, found that 28 per cent of participants reported having used creatine, with the figure rising to 48 per cent among male athletes in that study.
The researchers also found that friends and teammates were major sources of information about creatine.
That popularity, however, comes with an important caveat for elite competitors.
Athletes governed by anti-doping rules are responsible for substances found in their bodies, even when a prohibited substance enters the system unintentionally.
The World Anti-Doping Agency’s 2026 Prohibited List took effect on January 1, 2026, and WADA continues to warn athletes about the risks associated with contaminated supplements.
Supplement contamination can occur because of manufacturing practices or ingredients that are not accurately declared on a product’s label.
WADA has therefore cautioned that athletes should not assume a supplement is safe simply because a prohibited substance is absent from the listed ingredients.
The risk is particularly significant under the principle of strict liability.
If a prohibited substance is detected in an athlete’s sample, the athlete can face an anti-doping rule violation regardless of whether the substance was taken deliberately or entered the body inadvertently.
That makes professional guidance an important part of supplement decisions.
The IOC recommends a complete nutritional assessment before supplementation and advises athletes to consider the evidence, safety, suitability and potential anti-doping consequences before using a product.
The distinction is crucial because not every product marketed to athletes has strong evidence behind its claims.
The IOC has noted that only a relatively small number of supplements have convincing evidence of direct performance benefits, while many others have limited or inconsistent research.
For elite athletes, the pursuit of marginal gains is therefore a careful balancing act.
A supplement may provide a useful advantage in the right circumstances, but the potential reward has to outweigh its financial, health and anti-doping risks.
Professor Close estimates that supplement use may be even more widespread among professional athletes than published surveys suggest.
“There are various reports in the literature of some studies that say maybe up to 90% of athletes take supplements.
I often jokingly say that means 10% are lying,” he said.
“The sports teams that I’ve worked in, I think that’s probably closer to 100% of athletes will be taking some form of supplementation.”
The evolution of creatine from a relatively specialised product in the early 1990s to an established component of sports nutrition illustrates the wider shift.
Elite sport has become increasingly scientific, with athletes and support teams searching for small, measurable improvements across nutrition, training, recovery and preparation.
But the central lesson from sports nutrition research remains remarkably simple: supplements are additions, not substitutes.
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For athletes chasing the finest margins, the most powerful advantage may still come from mastering the basics before searching for the final one per cent.
