Baking powder is used by some athletes as it is shown to enhance performance.[0] I find it more realistic that they are adding it for that effect than making anyone unwell. As its not really something that makes you ill.

[0] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8427947/

I saw a good yt video on this the other day, investigating baking soda and athletics. https://youtu.be/Y_aTfQmqc5o

The creator certainly got pretty crook from ingesting baking soda