|
Taylor Hooton was a month past his 17th birthday when he buckled two
belts together, fastened one end to his bedroom door, wrapped the
other round his neck and hanged himself. An autopsy after Hooton's
suicide on July 15 revealed the presence of the steroids 19-
norandrosterone and 19-noretiocholanolone in his system.
Hooton, an aspiring baseball pitcher described as a popular and
ebullient student at the Texas college of Plano West north of Dallas,
had taken steroids to build himself up and compete more effectively
in his senior year, The drugs worked. In three months Hooton put on
12 kgs. But he also experienced the sudden mood switches consistent
with steroid abuse, alternating euphoric highs, violent aggression
and ultimately the severe depression which led to him taking his life.
His father Don, who with his mother Gwen has devoted himself to
campaigning against steroids in schools and who has set up his own
Web site (www.taylorhooton.org),
says steroid use among teenagers is tied up with the American dream.
"They're doing it to succeed because they think it might help
them to set up a scholarship, " he said. "Taylor was a
top-notch student. He, like so many, was doing it because it might
make him better."
The tragic tale underscores the forbidding obstacles facing the World
Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in its never-ending fight for drug-free
sport only eight months out from the Beijing Olympics.
May I wish everyone a Happy New Year in whichever timezone they
reside in and hope that you continue to prove in 2008 that you don't
need drugs to build muscle.
Harry Hayfield December 31st 2007. |
