Hooper's personal demons endanger golden dream

Australian light heavyweight boxer Damien Hooper's talent is not in question, but his ability to stay out of trouble is. The 20-year-old's latest misdemeanour on his Olympics debut suggests he himself is the biggest obstacle to winning his country's first boxing medal since Graham Cheney's silver in the light welterweight division in 1988. The 20-year-old is a free spirit but his impressive victory over his highly-rated American opponent Marcus Browne was overshadowed by his wearing of a T-shirt featuring the Aboriginal flag. It was in direct contravention of International Olympic Committee rules, which do not allow flags of nations or peoples not competing at the Games to be displayed. However, Hooper, who received a warning from his National Olympic Committee (NOC), was unrepentant. "I'm an Aborigine representing my culture and my people here at the Olympic Games," a defiant Hooper said. "That's what I wanted to do and I'm happy I did it. I was just thinking about my family and that's what really matters to me. "Look what it just did -- it just made my whole performance a lot better with that whole support behind me." Hooper, son of an Aborigine mother and a white father, but largely brought up by his grandmother Lilian, has a habit of snatching defeat from the jaws of personal victory as he illustrated in 2010. Having just become the first Australian to win a junior world title, when he triumphed at the Youth Olympics in Singapore, he was sent home early from the Commonwealth Games for allegedly dropping his trousers in front of an official. Even before the London Games he put his ambitions at risk by leaving a training camp despite head coach Don Abnett ordering him to stay. "I wasn't feeling comfortable in the camp," he told The Age newspaper earlier this month. "Because it's the biggest thing in my life, I didn't want any regret and to feel uncomfortable going into London. I just wanted to go home because I just wanted to see my family." Hooper, or "Super Hooper" as he is known, has done well to get this far as his early days suggested that a life of drink-related crime lay ahead of him as he grew up in the gloomy surroundings of Toowomba, Queensland. "I was hanging around with a group of older street kids," he said. "We started with stealing lollies. But once we got into alcohol, things got more serious. "I started stealing cars and breaking into houses and I ended up in juvy (juvenile detention) for a while." Hooper, who has his body covered in tattoos reflecting the different cultures his parents and grandmother come from, could have continued on that downward spiral. But then he met policeman Chris Seng. Seng did not pigeonhole Hooper as another hopeless case of a discontented Aboriginal youth, but took him under his wing and started him on the road to where he is today. "He took me in, trained me, showed me respect," he told The Australian. "He was just a really good bloke, the best I know. He was helping me out and getting into trouble for it." However, it took a while for Hooper to realise how much of a debt he owed the officer. "When I matured a bit I started thinking: 'this guy is showing me respect. I should show him respect by getting serious about boxing'."