Imagine that, a thread titled Multivitamins; and I talk about vitamins. Vitamin defiencies are quite common in the West.
And as you point out athletes need a little extra. You can call it insurance, but I have gotten tired of that bit of waffling. Either it's a good idea or it isn't. And if you don't think it's a good idea, why bother. The real problem here is that the basic research on what works, and when, is a long way from being finished. The discovery of bone problems among cyclists is recent. So people are talking calcium supplementation. But we won't know for years how effective that will be. Another annoyance I have is with Doctors and E. They laughed at the idea for decades. Then they got all excited over it and advised us to take a large dose. Then the results of follow up studies were disappointing so they dropped the whole thing.Classic fad behavior. We know it's a nutrient that is highly perishable. It doesn't store well (in food), it gets destroyed by cooking and other things in our diet. So adding a little extra makes sense. When people have been tested, a lot turn up with deficiencies.
But a small amount is fine.My multi has 64iu, for example. And I am pretty sure when long term studies are finally done you will see a small benefit from it. We could have started those studies 30 or even 40 years ago. It's not rocket science. There's just not a whole lot of research money going into studying health, ie, preventative measures.