British Skier Stripped of His Olympic Medal

The first British skier to win an Olympic medal was stripped of the award Thursday for using a decongestant that contained a banned stimulant, despite his claim he made an innocent mistake.

The case was similar to that of the Romanian gymnast who lost her gold medal at the Summer Games in Sydney for taking a cold pill.

The International Olympic Committee’s executive board said Alain Baxter will be stripped of his bronze medal for testing positive for methamphetamine contained in a Vicks inhaler he used at last month’s Winter Games.

“The mere presence of the substance in the body constitutes a doping offense,” IOC Director General Francois Carrard said. “There is no room to take into account whether it was in good faith or not. That’s a rule and we absolutely have to apply it.”

The Scotsman’s medal will go to fourth-place finisher Benjamin Raich of Austria. The IOC said the British Olympic Assn. must return it by March 31.

The IOC also disqualified Vasily Pankov, a hockey player from Belarus, who tested positive for the steroid nandrolone. The team doctor, Evgeni Lositski, was banned from the next two Olympics.

The 28-year-old Baxter was the third athlete to lose a medal for a doping infraction in Salt Lake City. Five doping cases have been confirmed from those Games, matching the total at all previous Winter Olympics.

Baxter and the BOA said the skier was harshly punished for unwittingly taking a banned substance in an over-the-counter decongestant.

Baxter said he would consult with lawyers on whether to appeal.

“It’s been a long three weeks, going from the best couple days of my life to the worst three weeks,” he said.