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Advil. A name every athlete is familiar with. It’s the first response to a sore muscle and the go-to fix after a tough meet. But its presence also marks the beginning of a deeper issue that lies within competitive sports – the normalization of medicating pain, even when the pain is more than physical.
As a high school track and field athlete, I’ve watched my teammates deal with injuries like shin splints, tendon strains, and hamstring pulls, often continuing to train through them. Behind the scenes, pain management becomes a silent routine: over-the-counter anti-inflammatories, muscle rubs, taped joints. And when that’s not enough, some athletes receive prescriptions for something stronger. Not to escape the pain, but to function and perform.
Opioid misuse among athletes, especially those recovering from injury, has emerged as a national concern. A study published in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine found that 26.5% of collegiate athletes had received an opioid prescription following an orthopedic injury or surgery, along with a small subset using opioids for non-pain relieving purposes.
What makes opioids especially dangerous in athletic environments is not just their addictive potential; it’s the culture surrounding them. Athletes are taught to always “push through.” Recovery is treated as a delay to success, not a necessity. And vulnerability, especially among male athletes, is often condemned. Within this culture, asking for help or admitting something’s wrong becomes 10 times more difficult.
While national conversations about addiction often focus on unlawful substances or post-career collapse, the path to opioid dependency in sports begins earlier. For many, it starts with a legal prescription issued after an injury. A JAMA Network Open study from 2020 confirmed that young athletes, particularly those in high-intensity sports, face an elevated risk of extreme opioid use compared to non-athlete peers.
What separates sports-related opioid addiction from other contexts is that athletes often aren’t seeking a frenzy, but instead they’re seeking a return to ordinary. Opioids for athletes serve as a way to meet expectations. When recovery time is seen as lost time, performance becomes the priority over long-term health.
Professional sports provide some of the most visible cautionary tales. In the National Football League, the issue is so widespread that a class-action lawsuit was filed against the league by former players claiming that teams recklessly distributed opioids and other painkillers to keep them playing. In Olympic history, several elite athletes have revealed post-retirement battles with substance dependence all stemming not from recklessness, but from repeated injuries and a system that emphasized resilience over recovery.
In track and field specifically, the pressure to maintain peak performance over narrow competition windows creates a cycle of overtraining, underreporting pain, and constant reliance on medication. As the Olympics approach every four years, the spotlight grows more intense. Even among youth athletes, the drive to qualify for state and national competitions or college recruitment can lead to several shortcuts being taken and, in extreme cases, substance use.
Addiction isn’t a personal failure but, in the bigger picture, it’s a systemic blind spot. It grows from environments that prioritize output over well-being. Until sports organizations, schools, and coaches build stronger frameworks around injury care, mental health, and education, this pattern will only continue.
The stigma surrounding athlete weakness must be broken down. Opioids don’t appear out of nowhere, rather they fill gaps left by pressure and insufficient support.
I’ll always love the thrill of track from the adrenaline to the discipline and competition. But no race is worth losing oneself. In a network built on pushing limits, real change begins by recognizing where we’ve pushed too far.
This article was written as part of a program to educate youth and others about Alameda County’s opioid crisis, prevention and treatment options. The program is funded by the Alameda County Behavioral Health Department and the grant is administered by Three Valleys Community Foundation.
