No rewards for Baxter

Published on Sunday 26 February 2006 00:52

IT WOULD have been the perfect Hollywood ending but just like the movie that shares his name, Highlander Alain Baxter's Olympic sequel will go straight to video. It could have been so different, a tale to have scriptwriters typing into the small hours and casting agents wooing A-listers at high-powered breakfast meetings.

You could just see the movie trailer. Footage of a triumphant bronze in Salt Lake City, whirling headlines of his fall from grace. The screen fades to black and then, through a raging Olympic flame, a familiar face skis towards the audience.

A gravelly voice would intone: "He was wronged. Now he's back to put things right. The Highlander fought his first battle at Park City in 2002. Now, four years on, he'll fight his greatest battle yet. His name is Baxter, Alain Baxter. And this time - it's personal." However, while the proposed plot had it all and no-one deserved a happy ending more, Baxter could not play his part under the floodlights at Sestriere Colle last night.

The Aviemore racer, who has failed to finish in the top 30 of a World Cup event this season, may claim some personal satisfaction from his 16th place but it hardly avenged the injustice of what happened in the days and months that followed Salt Lake.

He was 20th after the first run, a distant one and a half seconds off the pace, brother Noel was nine spots further back and eventually finished 20th, the same position as four years ago.

Giant slalom champion Benjamin Raich won his second gold and led home an Austrian 1-2-3, with Reinfried Herbst and Rainer Schnfelder taking the other places on the podium.

Baxter acknowledged this will be his final Olympics - drawing a line under a saga that has overtaken his life in recent years. "I won't be in Vancouver," he said. "However, I still think I'm skiing well and I'm looking forward to the future now and I've got two or three years left in me on the World Cup circuit.

"I tried to say it was just another race but I was pretty nervous in the start hut."

Baxter's aggressive style has been the reason why he has failed to finish so many races this season and he admitted he was too cautious yesterday.

"Maybe I wasn't quite going at 100% and I'm a little bit disappointed by that," he added. "It would have been nice to have been in the top 15 and grab a couple of world ranking points. However, it was also nice to finish. I did better than I thought I would on the first run, although I took the top section a little easier than I should have done.

"There were good parts and bad parts to the second run, I started and finished strongly but the middle section was a little rough, I was just too passive."

Noel declared himself satisfied with his performance, which added to his career best performance in the alpine combined and concludes a solid Olympic campaign for Baxter junior. "I gave the course a little bit too much respect in the first run but my second run was much better," he said. You never know what happens in slalom and the number of guys who skied out just shows how tough this course is."

But while Alain's performances all season meant hopes of another top three finish were never really likely, the same cannot be said of Giorgio Rocca and Bode Miller. It's not been a good Games for the Italian ski team and Rocca was the shining star around which all other medal hopes oscillated.

Two weeks ago he read the athletes oath at the opening ceremony and you cannot move in Turin for pictures of the slalom king weaving down a near-vertical sheet of snow and ice.

After five consecutive World Cup wins Rocca seemed a nailed-on certainty to follow in the footsteps of ski legend Alberto Tomba, Italy's last alpine gold medallist in Albertville 14 years ago.

The mountain village of Sestriere was packed with expectant fans but just seconds after the event began, Rocca crashed face-first in the snow after crossing his skis. He lay there for several moments, in apparent disbelief, before climbing to his feet, the nation's collective groans ringing in his ears.

"I lost a great opportunity that can come back only in the next Olympics," said Rocca. "I knew that the course changed in that portion of the race. I got it wrong and it's my fault."

Miller also failed to finish the first run, one of 30 skiers who found the course a little too tough for their liking.

A few weeks ago Miller vowed that he would never 'half-ass' the Olympics, following his candid and controversial admission that he'd skied World Cup events under the influence of alcohol. However, he didn't do a very good job of living up to his word. He was photographed in a Sestriere nightclub, alongside Playboy's Miss March, and he injured his ankle during a pick-up game of basketball with US teammates.

All of which hardly helped Miller, the World Cup overall champion a year ago, add to his two silver medals from Salt Lake. He finished his lacklustre Olympics by straddling a gate just a few seconds into his run, he then skied off course while raising his arms in mock excitement. The life and times of bad boy Bode - now there is a movie worth scripting.

Britain's Jon Eley reached the final of the 500m speed skating after some event-filled qualification but could only finish fifth and last. Eley reached the semi-finals after one of his rivals was disqualified and another tripped. And he was awarded a place in the final when China's Jiajun Li was disqualified and Eley was impeded on the line.

But after being drawn in lane five for the final he struggled to bother eventual winner Apolo Anton Ohno. The American dominated the final throughout and lifted his arms to celebrate after crossing the line in front of Canada's Francois-Louis Tremblay.