[Sport: is it a protective factor or a factor of exposure to alcohol risk?]

Sport : is it a protective factor or a factor of exposure to alcohol risk ? This article provides an update on the nature of the links between athletes and alcohol consumption in order to better identify and understand the risks associated with the use of alcohol in the athlete population. All this by specifying the ways in which participation in sports could prove to be protective with respect to such risks and to answer to the stakes posed by this public health question. Different characteristics of the athlete population (intensity of participation, nature of sports participation, etc.) were taken into account in order to answer the question « How do sports affect your health? » and to understand the characteristics of alcohol-related disorders in athletes with reference to the place occupied by the alcohol substance in the athlete's career. Beyond alcohol consumption, it has been possible to emphasize the ambivalent protective and vulnerabilizing character of sports participation on health, be it at the cultural, psychological, physiological and social level. On the basis of these elements, this article proposes a discussion on prevention programs and interventions for alcohol misuse in the sports population.