From gangsters to corpses: the story of steroids
There are those who risk everything to muscle up. Some develop chests so big they struggle to breathe or have to sleep in nappies so they don't wet their beds. In 'Guns and Needles', Clinton van der Berg lays bare the seedy underbelly of sport, where shady characters and willing athletes are prepared to do whatever it takes to come out on top
06 February 2022 - 00:00
In August 2017, two men broke into the well-secured Hohenort Avenue home of Brian Wainstein in Cape Town’s affluent Constantia suburb. They entered his bedroom and shot him several times. His wife and child, lying alongside, were untouched. His death brought to prominence the occasionally treacherous reality of the steroid world, described by rapper Kenny P as “f**king dangerous”.
Wainstein was known as the Steroid King, a moniker earned through his international reputation as a broker and supplier of steroids. He was known to have a propensity for violence and intimidation. “At one time he had the biggest steroid operation in the world,” said Mark Stent, a former bodybuilder...
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