"I fear Ozempic will refuel body surveillance in sport"

Read a preview of Kyniska Co-Founder Kate Seary’s guest op-ed for esteemed sports journalist Molly McElwee.

Ozempic was a word most of us had never heard before 2023, but is now part of everyone’s lexicon.

It’s a word I hear or see multiple times every day. I live in New York City, where advertising just hits different — and advertising medication is not just legal but hugely common. Ozempic is everywhere right now. From adverts online, on billboards or on bus stops. Then there’s the opinion pieces in major newspapers, influencers weighing in, rumours about celebrities taking it, people chatting on the subway and even on the advertising hoardings around the court at the Canada Open this summer.

There’s no hiding from weight-loss injections. For those who need to take them for medical conditions, it is life-changing. For those who don’t, but take it anyway, it is a phenomenon too.

To me though, the rise in Ozempic and other GLP-1 medications is a major worry. I see it as a new tool for sportspeople to dive head first into the same diet culture that had us by the throats for decades. As a co-founder of a safe sport organisation, I can already see how the drug is trickling into conversations around performance, and it is giving me a grave sense of deja vu…

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You can read the complete article here

Hosted by Molly McElwee ‘But do you actually like sport?’ on Substack

Check out Molly’s new book ‘Building Champions: Paths to Success in Women’s Tennis’