Nutritional Supplements in Sport: Balancing Performance, Safety, and Integrity

The widespread use of nutritional supplements has become a defining feature of modern sport, spanning recreational to elite levels. Athletes frequently consume a variety of products marketed to improve performance, recovery, and adaptation. Yet, scientific evidence supporting many claims remains inconsistent, and contamination or mislabeling of products continues to represent a significant threat to athlete health, fair play, and compliance with anti‑doping regulations.

This Research Topic aims to evaluate the role of supplements in sport through a multidimensional lens—covering efficacy, safety, integrity, and education. It seeks to integrate research from sports nutrition, exercise physiology, anti‑doping science, analytical chemistry, pharmacology, and policy studies to better understand both the benefits and the risks associated with supplement use.

We invite contributions addressing evidence‑based analyses of ergogenic aids; patterns of supplement use across sport levels; contamination, adulteration, and inadvertent doping; analytical methods for detection and quality control; psychological and educational aspects of supplement consumption; and regulatory or policy perspectives toward safer, transparent practices.

Ultimately, this collection seeks to provide a balanced overview of supplementation in sport, fostering evidence‑based decision‑making, athlete protection, and integrity promotion within the global sports community.

To gather further insights within these boundaries, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

• Efficacy and safety of common ergogenic supplements (e.g., caffeine, creatine, beta‑alanine, nitrate)
• Prevalence, motivations, and perceptions of supplement use among athletes and coaches
• Contamination, adulteration, and risk of inadvertent doping
• Analytical approaches for detecting banned or high‑risk substances in supplements
• Nutraceutical innovation, quality assurance, and regulatory frameworks
• Anti‑doping education and communication on supplement risks
• Supplement regulation, labeling, and consumer protection policies
• Ethical and integrity perspectives on performance enhancement and supplement marketing
• Integration of supplement management into athlete support and health systems

We encourage submissions in the form of Original Research, Systematic Reviews, Meta‑Analyses, Narrative Reviews, and Perspective articles.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Registered Report
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Sports Nutrition, Ergogenic Aids, Supplement Safety, Anti‑Doping and Integrity, Athlete Health and Performance

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.