Why are Non-Diabetic Olympic Athletes Using CGMs?Why are Non-Diabetic Olympic Athletes Using CGMs?

As the Paris Olympics get into full swing, you may have noticed more than one of your favorite athletes are sporting continuous glucose monitors (CGMs). But these Olympians may not be diabetic. Instead, athletes are using the medical device to try to up their game in training and during competition, and medtech companies are taking notice.

Companies are already capitalizing on the hype, some offering CGMs to non-diabetic individuals, and others offering non-prescription CGM devices. Dexcom’s Stelo device became the first CGM in the US to be approved for purchase without a prescription, with the launch planned for this summer.

Abbott recently won US approval for its non-prescription Lingo device and smartphone app for health and wellbeing. The device has been available in Britian since January. The company also recently obtained US clearance for its non-prescription Libre Rio system for diabetics that don’t need insulin. Abbott introduced a CGM for athletes without diabetes in Europe in 2020 and have since sponsored Kenyan marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge and his team since 2021.

Using them as a training secret weapon, top athletes have been known to use these devices to optimize calorie intake and workout intensity as they prepare for competition.

Reuters reported that Dutch marathoner Abdi Nageeye, who qualified for Paris, is monitoring blood glucose with his coaches as an indicator of the body’s available energy. The use of a CGM has guided him to work on sleeping and eating patterns so that he expends minimum energy during training. Abbott has sponsored his team since 2021.

Researchers are also seeing the potential opportunities for using CGMs in athletes. Gregory Cox, a sports dietician and associate professor at Bond University in Australia, and his team, published a review in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism examining the potential value of tracking interstitial glucose with CGMs in athletes, “highlighting possible applications and important considerations in the collection and interpretation of interstitial glucose data,” the authors wrote.

However, using CGM technology in this way is greatly untested, according to the review, and needs further investigation to confirm usefulness in the sports arena.

“Theoretical caveats relate to the as yet untested hypothesis that glucose data derived from CGMs can provide information on the success of various sports nutrition strategies implemented to optimize performance outcomes,” the authors wrote. “In the case of the application of CGMs to guide fueling practices, there is currently no evidence that CGM-derived data can identify glucose values that denote optimal CHO availability or differentiate optimal and suboptimal CHO intake practices.”

Even with little concrete data on its effectiveness in athletics currently, the devices don’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon and research will continue to light the way on the usefulness of athlete performance optimization using CGMs.

"Most researchers cannot give you the exact answers,” Filip Larsen, associate professor at the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, told Reuters. “In five years, we will know 10 times as much as we do now."