AS he stood on the podium, the blue-ribboned medal hanging round his neck matching the Saltire-shade he'd dyed his hair, Alain Baxter tightly clutched the skis which had transported him to this moment of glory ... the moment he became Scotland's sporting hero.
It was February 2002 in Salt Lake City, and the 28-year-old had just become Britain's greatest skier by winning bronze in the men's slalom.
He was the first UK skier to win a medal at a Winter Olympics and, when he returned to Scotland, the crowds
roared their approval as the Edinburgh-born star toured Aviemore in an open-topped bus.
It's the kind of reception Chris Hoy can expect tomorrow. As the cyclist became the greatest Scottish Olympian, Baxter – who shares a conditioning coach with Hoy – was at his Stirlingshire home, changing the nappies of his nine-week-old baby daughter, Brooke, and entertaining his two-year-old son, Kerr.
But while Hoy can now expect to earn millions in sponsorship deals, Baxter is hoping a nude photographic session with Trevor Yerbury may be made into a calendar to earn him some cash to keep him on his skis.
For like his chosen sport, life has been full of ups and downs for the 34-year-old ever since he stepped off that podium in Utah. His medal was taken from him when he tested positive for trace amounts of the drug methamphetamine after using a US-manufactured Vicks inhaler to deal with his recurring sinus problems. And, although he was later completely cleared of the offence, his bronze medal has never been reinstated by the International Olympic Committee.
His career has gone slowly downhill thanks to a string of injuries and his ranking has slipped from fourth in the world to 155th. As a result, he has also lost vital Lottery funding which ensured he could concentrate on his skiing full-time – hence the calendar.
For the now-blonde Baxter has his sights set firmly on his third Olympics – Vancouver 2010 – and a podium place once more. Before that there's also the small matter of the World Championships in France next February and November's World Cup in Finland – if he can keep the wolf from the door.
"It is ironic that the more you need the money, the less likely you are to get it," he smiles. "When you have the Lottery funding and you're on the programme it's great, but when you lose it you're kind of stuck. I lost Lottery funding because of the inhaler thing, but got it back again when I was cleared. But if you lose your ranking then you lose your funding, which is very difficult if you're still committed 100 per cent to your sport and you've got a mortgage to pay.
"In Turin (the last Winter Olympics in 2006] I had to finish eighth or above to keep my funding, but I came in 16th. It's a lottery in itself as anything can happen at these events."
Not that he hasn't endured some financial difficulty for the love of his sport before. Until that bronze-winning run, he spent years living out of the back of his Volkswagen Passat, spending tens of thousands of pounds of his own money trawling the World Cup circuit. Much of his equipment was begged and borrowed and work involved fencing and labouring for an old school friend.
His success in Salt Lake City should have ensured that he never again had to endure the kind of financial hardship that almost forced him to retire in 1996, but it wasn't to be.
"My funding was similar to that of Chris Hoy's (he received a Lottery-funded salary of £24,000 to keep him training full-time]. Of course, the more successful you are you attract other sponsorship, and when that happens you lose a percentage of your Lottery funding as well."
He shrugs. The one thing Alain Baxter cannot be accused of is of being bitter. He's not a man who seems to be easily wound up – even over the drugs "scandal" that cost him his medal.
"If the sample had been tested at Salt Lake City, nothing would have shown up," he says. "But because the lab there had packed up because it was the last event, it was sent to Los Angeles which used a different set of markers, so it came back as positive. I still don't understand it really.
"It was an inhaler I use all the time (he still carries one with him] because of my sinus problems. I have been told to have them removed, but then I wouldn't be able to fly for four months, which would mean no training. The whole thing is just annoying. I still can't believe it happened."
His relaxed take is also probably why he was easily persuaded to bare all for a photoshoot.
"Originally it was just to get some new pictures for my website, but we did a couple of nude shots – very artistically obviously – and we thought, 'why not do a whole shoot of those?'," he recalls. "My wife Sheila said, 'if it's good enough for David Beckham ...' and he's just got an Armani contract. That would be nice.
"I guess there's an opportunity to do a calendar, if someone wanted to sponsor it, with some of the money going to charity, but also to help keep me training."
It's not all doom and gloom financially, though. He does earn some money being a Snowsport GB ambassador, as a chief tester for skiwear manufacturer Head, and also taking part in the TV show Superstars.
"Superstars is great fun and it's good to compete against athletes from different sports," he says. "I won the last series, so they asked me back and this time in Steve Redgrave's team.
"It was great meeting Roger Black and Lee Sharpe is such a laugh. You know, I was asked to take part in the first Celebrity Love Island, but I was right in the middle of summer training, so turned it down – thank god. And, of course, I'd just met Sheila."
Sheila became Mrs Baxter three years ago after meeting through mutual friends – skier Finlay Mickel and Alain's aunt Penny.
"It's hard work with the kids, especially as I'm away so often training. It's a bit like being off-shore. I'm aware of how much I miss at home. I'm thinking of taking Kerr to Braehead to the indoor skiing centre to see how he gets on."
At the weekend he was at Hillend handing out the prizes in the Scottish Children's Championship – a competition he won many years ago.
Just back from knee surgery, Alain is now looking to build towards Vancouver.
"I'm not long back from Switzerland and the first skiing camp since the end of the season. I'm fit, still fast and I've still got a lot to give," he says.
"I would kick myself if I stopped now. The Olympics is the marker and, as training now means I'm away from my family, it means I've got to make it worth it."
A FAMILY AFFAIRBORN in Edinburgh, where most of his family come from, Alain was brought up in Aviemore, where his dad Iain, a former Scottish champion, owned a cycle shop as well as being a ski instructor.
Alain's mother Sue is also a former international skier, his cousin is Olympic snowboarder Lesley McKenna and his half-brother Noel is also a top-level skier.
Alain, known as The Highlander, is named after one of Iain and Sue's sporting heroes, the 1970s French skiing star Alain Penz.
The Baxter family's passion for snow goes back to his grandparents Chic and May, who would trudge three miles up the Cairngorm mountains half a century ago before strapping their climbing boots into 7ft ex-army wooden skis.
Alain was just two years old when he first tried out skis – a plastic Mothercare pair – but by the time he was 14 he was part of the Scottish Junior Ski Team.
Aged 18 he was part of the British team and was ranked 960th in the world, gradually climbing through the ranks until he was 61st by the age of 26.
Then came the Salt Lake City Olympics. His own website only states that he became the first Briton to win a medal for skiing, "only to be disqualified from the competition a few days later and the medal had to be returned".
