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The Swedish national cross-country ski team signed a sponsorship with Novo Nordisk—a pharmaceutical company in Denmark. The deal has been met with some criticism because Novo Nordisk’s best selling product is Ozempic—the revolutionary medical weight loss drug. The sponsorship is being marketed under the slogan “A common goal—a healthier Sweden,” but some are questioning the message this partnership is sending. Cross-country skiing (along with ski jumping) has long been known to have the worst problem with eating disorders and disordered eating in winter sports.
The association of the Swedish cross-country team with a weight loss drug has stirred a hot debate in Sweden after the deal was announced October 23, 2025. However, Sweden’s long-distance manager Lars Öberg is welcoming the debate. He acknowledges that both he as well as Novo Nordisk knew that this would raise questions but he thinks it will open up a positive dialogue and sees it as an opportunity to raise awareness around health and nutrition, helping their joint goal. “By talking about it in the right way, knowledge increases… and we hope to also contribute to helping Novo Nordisk move forward in the goal they have,” Öberg emphasized.
World Cup cross-country skier Ebba Andersson admits that there is of course some “complexity” around the partnership. “I certainly understand the problem in this matter, considering that we are fronting a company that is behind a fairly controversial drug,” she said in an interview with Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. But the Swedish athlete is quick to point out that the drug was originally created to treat type 2 diabetes. “If you look at what it was actually created for, it is something positive for those who really need it to be healthy.” Ozempic, which uses semaglutide injections to mimick the body’s GLP-1 hormone, has successfully treated millions of patients with type 2 diabetes across the world. In fact, Novo Nordisk’s dedication to supporting those with diabetes dates back more than 100 years when the originally separate two companies, Novo and Nordisk, secured the rights to produce insulin for Scandinavian diabetes patients.
The Danish company is no stranger to sport, having long sponsored Team Novo Nordisk, a professional cycling team made up of athletes living with diabetes. It is also important to stress that like the cycling athletes, the Swedish cross-country team will not be wearing an ‘Ozempic’ product label on their uniforms but rather a neutral Novo Nordisk, making the association only known to those who already have awareness around the product.
Yet the sponsorship raises more than one red flag, particularly in a discipline where eating disorders and low energy availability are documented problems. Disordered eating and eating disorders in winter sports athletes lead to low energy availability (LEA) which in turn can increase the risk of illness and injury. An ongoing study by the Eidgenössische Hochschule für Sport in Magglingen in Switzerland found that many elite Swiss athletes suffered from mental health issues, including 22% who reported struggles with eating disorders. A small-scale investigation of elite skiers found 31 % of female athletes are at risk of long-term energy deficiency. These figures highlight why critics are uneasy about the optics of pairing an elite endurance sport with a weight-loss drug manufacturer.
- Related: Inside the Silent Battle: The Prevalence of Eating Disorders Among Elite Winter Sports Athletes
Multiple reviews have flagged concerns about use of GLP-1 agonists—like semaglutide—by individuals with disordered-eating risk and a 2025 study of male adolescents found higher rates of eating-disorder psychopathology among prescription weight-loss-medication users. So having the producer of such a drug as your head sponsor in a sport that faces heightened pressures around body-size, weight, and performance, can come across as tone-deaf or even counterproductive.
In addition, in an endurance sport, where athletes are commonly low weight, what message does the sponsorship of a company known for its weight-loss medication send to young impressionable spectators of the sport. Along with the message of “A common goal–a healthier Sweden,” it could be misconstrued as a reinforcement of a body image ideal that is not necessarily achievable for everyone.
The question is, however, whether a company should be reduced to the popular off-label use for weight loss for which it was not originally intended. Besides, hundreds of thousands of people have successfully lost unhealthy weight that previously classified them as obese, in turn also reducing the patients’ high blood pressure and thus their risk for heart disease. Let’s remember that Novo Nordisk never set out to create a weight-loss drug but rather to fix the biggest killer on the planet: Diabetes. Annually more than 2 million people die each year from diabetes, with Type 2 Diabetes the most prevalent type. So maybe it is more important to focus on the many positives that this company has achieved for people with diabetes across the globe.
- Related: U.S. Ski Team Changes Name to “Stifel U.S. Alpine Ski Team” as Stifel Financial Becomes Sponsor
For the athletes, much needed funding will be a key component for their ability to train and perform. For the sponsor Novo Nordisk, the association with one of the best cross-country teams in the world ahead of the Olympics will be a great platform. For the general population, it may just stir up a healthy debate around health, exercise, nutrition, and eating disorders, and could be seen as preferable to logos of unhealthy drinks manufacturers promoting high fructose drinks—or even high-caffeine drinks. The right communication by the Swedish National Team as well as the sponsor around the intended health message is key to a successful partnership for the 2025-26 season.
