Mistake Baxter can never forget

Published on Saturday 20 November 2004 00:03

ALAIN Baxter is late. It’s not the first time these four words have appeared in the same sentence, since the reputation of Scotland’s top skier for being a little shambolic in the art of time- keeping does precede him. But it is rare that it does so by a full three hours.

We are due to meet in Baxter’s home town of Aviemore, a day before he is due to leave for his winter base at the British Olympic Training Centre in Lofer, Austria. This week he travelled on from there to Colorado, where tomorrow he is due to open his season in low-key fashion at Breckenridge; in two weeks, at Beaver Creek, he will race in the season’s first World Cup, raising the curtain on his 11th season as a top-class skier.

Before leaving for the winter, however, and in time-honoured Baxter fashion, he is not at the caf at the agreed time. Instead, he is teeing-off on a golf course 20 miles away.

A phone-call establishes that he had thought we were meeting the next day. But wasn’t he due to leave the next day? He thinks about that, before admitting: "Oh, aye."

Three hours later, he breezes in. He is smiling broadly but has the decency to look a little sheepish, and as he sits down one is torn between righteous indignation and resigned acceptance.

The latter wins; it is somehow difficult to feel annoyed at Baxter. He is the way he is: straightforward, as laidback as a sunbather, and often running late.

What is unfortunate is that he is, ironically, most likely to be remembered for his forgetfulness; specifically when, at the 2002 Winter Olympics, he used a nasal inhaler purchased in an American rather than a British pharmacy, which contained the banned substance methamphetamine.

Despite the BOA ruling that he had made "a modest mistake"; having his three-month ban overturned by the International Ski Federation; and being called "a sincere and honest man" by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which ruled that he had "gained no competitive advantage", Baxter’s punishment, the loss of his Olympic bronze medal, was severe.

It is hardly an exaggeration to say that this episode has proved career-defining. Or that it will be his legacy, reducing an otherwise impressive career as one of the world’s top skiers to one infamous incident; one moment of absent-mindedness among, well, okay, probably quite a few.

Perhaps redemption will come at the next Winter Olympics, in Turin, in 15 months, but in the meantime it is difficult to tell whether Baxter has truly put the disappointment of the last Games behind him.

The outward appearance, certainly, has been that he has just carried on in his usual, laidback way. But whenever there’s a drugs-in-sport story, his name is dredged back up. In June, when the cyclist David Millar confessed to taking EPO, the news bulletins reeled off the members of Scotland’s hall of shame. Baxter spent most of the summer in Aviemore, so he saw himself lumped in with the bad guys.

The frustration for him is that he understands that the issue of drugs in sport features more grey areas than a low cloud day in the Cairngorms. To consider that his misdemeanour bears any resemblance to Millar’s, for example, or to that of the American, Tyler Hamilton, suspected of blood doping at the Athens Olympics yet likely to keep his gold medal, would be laughable were it not for the damage caused to Baxter by the episode. He also knows, however, that it’s an argument he can’t win.

"I’m never going to get away from it," he admits. "I came to the conclusion this year that whenever there’s something like [the Millar story] my name will come up. It will never go away. If I win something else, maybe, but it will always be there. In 20 years it will still be there.

"What is annoying is to see someone like Hamilton get away with it. That was blood doping he was accused of. But to other people it’s all just doping, isn’t it?

"Some people said to me, ‘Christ if that was me, I wouldn’t have carried on’. But I think that is the way I go about everything. A bit of frustration builds up now and again, but I just get on with it. Even when I thought I might be banned I just got on with it."

These are the words that might best sum Baxter up. He gives the impression of being someone who does, generally, enjoy life, and declares himself "well excited" about the season ahead.

"I changed equipment at the end of last season, so it feels like a fresh start. Last season was all right. It was steady. But I wasn’t overly happy with the results. I can do better."

He spent the summer as he always spends the summer - keeping fit and having fun at home in Speyside. A natural athlete and sportsman, you don’t imagine that he could ever tire of such a lifestyle. "I had three weeks off then I was full on," he says.

But things have changed for Baxter. Having raced, trained and travelled almost entirely on his own in his early days on the international circuit, he now has the company of other talented young British skiers. He is also part of a system that is making life both easier - with more funding and support - and also more difficult, since the training is more focused and intense. Gone are the days when he could casually turn out to play shinty or ice hockey, or both, just before heading back out to the Alps.

"It all comes from here," he says, pointing to the Scottish Institute of Sport logo on his polo shirt. "It’s one day weights, next day endurance, with recovering, cycling and swimming in between. That’s basically the summer, along with six to eight weeks’ skiing on the glaciers in Austria and Switzerland.

"It’s the first year I’ve worked with coaches who are not just from a skiing background, and it definitely complements the ski coaching I get. I really like cross training, doing a bit of everything. I play a lot of tennis and golf. I was doing a bit of shinty and ice-hockey training as well this summer. It’s great for your co-ordination and your fitness, but obviously you’ve got to watch out for injuries."

Baxter is also not long back from La Manga, where he took part in the BBC’s Superstars programme, to be screened over Christmas, though he is forbidden from saying whether or not he improved on his second place in last year’s series.

He turns 31 on Boxing Day and must be contemplating life after skiing. "I’m looking at the next three years definitely: the world champs, Olympics, another world champs," he says.

"My focus has always been on the World Cup, because that’s my job, and if you’re talking goals, it would be to win a World Cup. But then there are the Olympics - after being on the podium there, I have to admit it was a bit different. Then again, they didn’t exactly treat me very well.

"I’m looking forward to this season," he adds, changing tack. "I feel fit, I have the new equipment and I’m not thinking about retiring. If you’re still doing well, then why would you stop? Hopefully I have at least five or six years, but when I do stop I might just stay here; I bought a house a couple of years ago.

"I don’t know much more than skiing, but I’m not sure I could handle being in ski boots for the rest of my life," he laughs. "They’re not the comfiest of things, you know?"