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| March 22, 2002 | Friday | Muharram 7, 1423 |
Skier stripped of Olympic medal
LONDON, March 21: British skier Alain Baxter has been stripped of the slalom bronze medal he won at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics because of a positive drug test, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced Thursday.
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.
Baxter, who finished third behind Frenchmen Jean-Pierre Vidal and Sebastien Amiez at Deer Valley, Utah, was the first Alpine skier to test positive at the Games.
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.
The Scot, whose third place set off wild parties in his home town of Aviemore in the Highlands, was due to hold a news conference with British Olympic officials in London at 1430 GMT.
Stimulants cause euphoria, an increased state of alertness, and can help an athlete feel less fatigue.—Reuters
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