Steroid caused death - Bad example

Yesterday, a coroner warned of the dangers of steroid use, after the inquest of a sport-loving 18-year-old, who died after using Stanozolol.

Luke O’Brien, from Co Limerick, played rugby, football, hurling, and basketball enthusiastically.

Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster said the young man died due to the ingestion of Stanzolol. Stanzolol, a legal drug, may have been the direct cause of the death, but admirable sporting ambition was at its root. So, too, were the increasingly unrealistic expectations around the physical capabilities of young, immature athletes.

Steroid and drug abuse are widespread in many sports.

In Russia, the process is organised at state level, because sports are seen as propaganda vehicles. The temporary bans, the half-hearted sanctions usually imposed on offenders, must be influential on young people trying to build a career in one sport or another.

Imposing a ban of a season or two on an athlete who used drugs illegally hardly represents real, convincing dissuasion.

Only a policy of zero tolerance might achieve that.