Skiing: Ruling gives Baxter hope for Olympics

Alain Baxter looks likely to be able to compete in the next Winter Olympics despite being officially stripped of his bronze medal, after the Court of Arbitration for Sport yesterday upheld the International Olympic Committee's decision to disqualify the Aviemore skier from his slalom third place for failing a drugs test for the banned substance methamphetamine.

The CAS and the IOC agreed that the 28-year-old did not knowingly ingest the substance to enhance his performance, so offering a silver lining on a black day for the Highlander.

The British Ski & Snowboard Federation allayed fears that Baxter could miss the next Winter Olympics in Turin in 2006. British Olympic Association rules state that a competitor found taking performance-enhancing drugs will not be allowed to compete in the next Olympics but, after receiving the strong support of the BOA in Baxter's case, the BSSF spokesman John Clark was confident that Baxter will not suffer that fate.

"There is a BOA by-law which kicks in and that effectively prevents him from taking part in the next Olympics," Clark said. "However, there is scope within their own by-laws to appeal that position. We are very confident that appeal will be heard favourably by the BOA, especially as they have been so supportive of the whole process all along.

"We intend to appeal as a matter of course to the BOA against by-law number four, which prevents Alain from being in the next Olympics.

"It is actually down to the BOA's own disciplinary committee to decide that and, without wishing to second-guess their decision, I would say it would be a reasonable assumption that they would look favourably on the appeal."

The CAS verdict stated: "The panel is not without sympathy for Mr Baxter, who appears to be a sincere and honest man who did not intend to obtain a competitive advantage in the race."

But the panel noted that, under Olympic rules, the presence alone of the prohibited substance in Baxter's urine sample constituted a doping violation and carried automatic disqualification.

The panel said that the Olympic anti-doping code prohibited different forms of methamphetamine, including levmetamfetamine, the version found in Baxter's sample.

The arbitrators upheld the IOC position that Baxter should be disqualified "whether or not the ingestion of that substance was intentional or negligent and whether or not the substance in fact had any competitive effect."

The IOC states, in its updated list of banned substances, which comes into effect on 1 January, that both forms of methamphetamine – the L and D isomers – are prohibited.

Baxter is determined to put the disappointment of the CAS decision behind him before the new season that begins next month. But the 28-year-old was particularly delighted to have his name cleared of any suggestions of cheating after he ingested the substance from a United States version of a Vick's nasal spray during last winter's Salt Lake City Games.

Baxter said that, although the decision was "strict and tough", his biggest relief was that "they had cleared my name, that I'm not classed as a cheat. I'm gutted not to be getting my medal back, but there's a lot of positive things to come out of this. I also feel it's not just my loss. I'm getting things back as normal and in future maybe the policies will change a little bit. I can get back to racing in a month's time and can look forward to racing. It's been mentally tough in the last eight months.

"It's pretty confusing why they have cleared my name, but they have decided not to give me the medal back," added Baxter. But that's a decision we have been fighting the whole way. Nothing's been clear, but what can you do about it? I just have to knuckle down – look at it that way."

Baxter will fly out to Austria today before he starts the new season.