Skiing: ‘I feel lucky for all the years I had in the sport’, says retiring Noel Baxter

At THE end of his 16-year career, which included four world championships and two Olympic Winter Games, the decision to finally hang up his slalom race skis was, for Noel Baxter, 31, made this week because of continued injury and ongoing lack of funding.

Returning this week to his much-loved home town of Aviemore after a training spell in New Zealand, the younger of the two Cairngorm brothers, who together reached new heights on the FIS World Cup tour and at the Olympic Winter Games for British slalom skiing, ended up with no choice but to quit.

“It’s a combination of the injury and having neither the money nor the support to carry on. I could do it but that would require having full-time physiotherapy support on the road with me to deal with the injury and even at that there is now just not the time to get to the level I want and need to be able to compete at.”

Baxter explained, “I’ve had a great career with so very many memories over those years, but it’s a bit frustrating.

“I had a small surgery in July and have struggled to get back to fitness, everything until the surgery was going really well. But now I don’t have the support of a physio with me all the time. It was very stressful trying to be ready for the start of the season and having no money.”

“The season would not cost me much less than £20,000. I needed to find £15,000 to pay into the (British Ski and Snowboard) programme. I have done fundraisers in the past and had great help from fantastic sponsors, but it is no longer possible”

Baxter remains angry at the financial demise two years ago of the British Ski and Snowboard Federation, which has made the last seasons almost unworkable.

“I really worry for the young guys who are coming up, what they are going to have in terms of a structure and funding, there is really nothing much there for them.”

Noel Baxter, along with Alain, remains one of only three British male skiers to win world cup points for finishing in the top 30 of a slalom, making three points-scoring results in 2004. His career-best result came ten years ago in heavy falling snow on the same bumpy, rutted Olympic slalom course at Deer Park, Utah, that Alain won his Olympic bronze medal – the medal he was subsequently and controversially stripped of for failing a drugs test after using an over-the-counter Vicks inhaler.

The younger Baxter sibling never quite managed the run of world cup consistency that Alain did, but Noel always threatened and even when his brother was at his very peak, Noel could ski faster in training.

Omitted from the 2010 
Olympic team, he let his skiing be the best riposte when he skied what he still believes is his best ever slalom run.

“It was a Europa Cup race in Oberjoch, Austria, when I had just been informed I was not going to the Olympics, I beat the eight guys there who were in the top ten in the world, including the world No 1.

“That was the best single run of my career, ten days before the Olympics. That was just when everything was going bad back home with the ski federation.”

“I still know I could get back to that level, but the preparation has to be right, through the summer and get the days on snow. I just can’t do that with the injuries I am carrying.”

“Alain winning the medal was a really unforgettable race, but it was also my breakthrough race, to get through into the top level. I really had just upped my game just before the games.”

“My first time winning world cup points [was] in Wengen in 2004, but memories of all these big races – Schladming, Kitzbuehel, Wengen, Adelboden – just every year, it was so exciting to be on the tour.”

“When I think of all the team-mates and all the races we did, I feel lucky and grateful for all the years I had in the sport.

“I was always doing it because it was what I loved to do, and I still love it. It was never ever anything to do with what team jacket you were wearing, the fancy cars or the glamour, I just loved it.

He continued: “I always wanted to finish on a high, so it’s a bit disappointing. But I am so proud to have been part of that group of racers that we had between 2002 and 2006-7. They were amazing years, with a lot of top racers – Alain, Finlay Mickel, Chemmy [Alcott], Johnny Moulder Brown and myself – all doing really well.

“I don’t think we really realised what was being achieved at the time, all we wanted was to improve and get better and better results.”

Baxter has already lined up a series of coaching roles, helping out with the Scottish Ski Team in coming weeks and also with private training groups, which – in the absence of any real funding and a cohesive supported pathway – are increasingly a component part of the disparate, underfunded British ski racing landscape.