Baxter Stripped of His Bronze

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has confirmed this afternoon what Alain Baxter must have feared, that the Scottish skier will be stripped of the slalom bronze medal he won at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics because of a positive drug test.

Baxter tested positive for the prohibited stimulant methamphetamine after making history on the penultimate day of last month's Games by winning Britain's first Alpine skiing Olympic medal.

The IOC's ruling executive board made the decision after an IOC inquiry commission held a hearing with Baxter last week.

The bronze medal will now go to Benjamin Raich of Austria who finished fourth. Raich also won a bronze in the men's combined event at the Games.

"Alain Baxter is disqualified from the men's alpine skiing slalom event," the IOC said in a statement. "He is excluded from the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

"The International Ski Federation is hereby requested to modify the results of the event accordingly and to consider whether it should take any further action within its own competence."

After the positive result, Baxter, 28, had said in a statement that he was "devastated" and declared he had never knowingly taken any medicine or substance to improve his performance. His defence claimed that the stimulant had been present in a Vicks inhaler Baxter had been using to clear his sinuses.