The Sad Tale Of Alain Baxter And Vicks

[joggerjayne]

This is the sad tale of Alain Baxter ... for anyone who has forgotten poor Alain.

Alain skied for GB at The Salt Lake City Olympics in ... thinks, thinks ... 2002.

He won Bronze in the Alpine Skiing. GB's first ever Olympic medal on snow.

He returned home to Scotland as a national hero. During he Games, he had dyed the blue and white Scottish flag on his hair, which got him a smack on the wrist from Team GB.

He was then told that he had failed a drugs test, and was being asked to return his Bronze medal.

This came as a surprise to Alain, who had never taken any performance enhancing drugs, and had followed all the Team's advice about what to avoid.

Alan's Bronze medal was given to the skier who came 4th, and Alain was banned from competitive skiing.

Well, it turned out that, when Alain had arrived in Salt Lake City, he had bought a Vicks Sinex nasal sniffer. Unbeknown to Alain, the decongestant chemicals used in Vicks in the US are slightly different from in the UK. Vicks are on the "safe to use" list in the UK. One of the chemicals in a US Vicks is a teeny, teeny, teeny trace element, which is some sort of variation, of some banned substance. I can't remember the name.

Anyway, the "banned substance" was traced back to the Vicks nasal sniffer.

The International Ski Federation accepted Alain's appeal, and the ban was lifted.

The British Olympic Committee then tried to get Alain's medal reinstated, but the Olympic sports appeal thing people (Google it, someone) refused, even though the microscopic trace of the substance from the nasal sniffer had been taken inadvertently.

In any case, it's not a performance related substance, it's just a decongestant, said the doctors, and the people from Vicks.

But Alain's Bronze medal was never reinstated.

And that is why Jenny Jones is considered to have won our first Olympic medal on snow.

Poor Alain.

There is a story that the guy who came 4th sent the Bronze medal back to Alain himself, but I'm not sure if that's true or not.

So Alain Baxter missed out on an Olympic medal, all because of a Vicks nasal sniffer.

On the plus side, at least he didn't have a blocked up nose, so "glass half full" and all that.

[heathfield]

Alain was on 'Reporting Scotland' (which follows the BBC1 6:00 pm news) and said that he never got his medal. Shame!

[joggerjayne]

Oh, did he not?

That is a shame.

[joggerjayne]

Well, immediate Best Answer for clearing up that little question.

[Peter Pedant]

.

err well I only feel partly sorry for this fella

I feel sorrier for the water skiers in the Zummerset levels.
Unwilling participants - no drugs at the end of the day -
trainer - that would be Lord Smith came down with something stuck up his nose - and said to the punters - " the results are MEANT to look like this and anyway it is not wet in Whitehall "

and then he b+ggered off back to London
and they stayed in their pools of stinking sewage

another sad sad story _ I find it sadder actually

[B00]

He still a bit sniffy 'bout it?

[joggerjayne]

Peter, I'm sorry there isn't an award for "Most Off Topic Answer" otherwise I would, of course, award it to your answer.

But of course, we all agree, the situation in Somerset is terrible.

[heathfield]

He's not at all snotty about it, Boo.

[joggerjayne]

Ohh, very good, B00.

I'm afraid I've already given the Best Answer.

[joggerjayne]

Who'd have thought there could be so many nasal congestion gags.

[jno]

tbh, by 2002 athletes were under pretty strict orders about what to take and what not to. Just going into KMart and picking something off the shelf in the hope that it would be okay, was playing with fire.

[joggerjayne]

True up to a point, jno.

But the "okay" and "not okay" list even included cold remedies.

Vicks was on the "okay" list in the UK.

This could be the most extreme example ever of "seems a bit harsh".

[Peter Pedant]

Oh jay-jay - my little efforts are so often ignored - thank you thank you

and you will notice I did put in (or even insert into) the story, a jest about the Stuck up Milord sticking something up his nose - vick, cocaine or even chopsticks. And so it was a little bit to the point.....

[joggerjayne]

You did, PP ... you did.

I always believe that it's worth reading your posts twice, to pick up the subtle details that one can miss the first time round.

Actually, many of your posts are like a good movie ... even better when you see them for a second time.