Dope Case Could Cost Skiing £1m

If Alain Baxter's positive drug test is confirmed by the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne next week the British Ski and Snowboard Federation could miss out on a £1m windfall it was expecting following his bronze medal in the Salt Lake City games last month.

The Edinburgh-based organisation has not received any lottery funding for several years and currently survives on £160,000 given by UK Sport from government funds and another £140,000 from sponsors.

It was expecting huge financial backing from the lottery as a result of Baxter's performance in the slalom which would have brought it into line with other winter sports such as bobsleigh, which receives £1.1m per year.

A decision on the exact figure was not due for another six weeks but it could have been as much as £750,000 per annum leading up to the Turin Winter Olympics in 2006.

Fine performances from Baxter's brother Noel and Ross Green, who both placed in the top 25 of their respective events, mean that the BSSF will still receive something.

But, if Baxter's amazing performance in becoming the first British skier to win a medal in an alpine event is removed from the record books after his positive test for the banned stimulant methamphetamine, the final figure could be reduced by as much as a third.

"It's not a black-and-white issue," said Matthew Crawcour, the spokesman for UK Sport. "The alpine results were interesting in Salt Lake City but potentially they could lose the result of their top-ranked skier.

"There is still the making of an attractive lottery proposal there, however. The sport's fate is not linked entirely to Alain's fate as an individual."

Baxter's personal national lottery grant of £70,000 a year was suspended by UK Sport on Friday the moment it heard he had tested positive.

Under new rules introduced by UK Sport earlier this year, unless Baxter can prove his claim that he is "entirely innocent", he will not be entitled to another penny of public funding for at least two years.

That could be extended indefinitely if the British Olympic Association refuses to lift the life ban it automatically imposes on all athletes found guilty of a doping offence.

Having his funding cut off could make it almost impossible for Baxter to continue on the expensive European circuit as his sponsors - who include Drambuie and the ski manufacturer Head - are unlikely to want to continue their association with him.

The 28-year-old from Aviemore, who is expected to have his B sample tested within the next few days, should know his fate by the end of next week.

Under the IOC's "strict liability" code - which means the athlete has responsibility for what is in his or her body - Baxter has almost no chance of being cleared unless he can come up with a better defence than that he unwittingly ingested the banned substance in a nasal decongestant inhaler.

Andrea Raducan, the Romanian gymnast was stripped of her all-round gold at the 2000 Sydney games after testing positive for pseudoephedrine as a result of a cold cure given to her by the national team doctor.

International ice hockey administrators revealed yesterday that an unnamed member of the Belarus team which lost the bronze medal play-off in Salt Lake City to Russia has tested positive for the banned substance nandrolone.

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