SKIING: The Scottish skier Alain Baxter looks certain to be able to compete in the next Winter Olympics despite having his bronze medal officially taken off him yesterday.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld the International Olympic Committee's decision to strip the Aviemore skier of his third place for failing a drugs test for the banned substance methamphetamine.

The CAS and the IOC both admit the 28-year-old did not knowingly ingest the substance to enhance his performance.

However, the British Ski and Snowboard Federation (BSSF) have assuaged fears that Baxter could miss the next Winter Olympics in Turin in 2006.

British Olympic Association rules state that a competitor found taking performance-enhancing drugs will not be allowed to compete in the next Olympics. But, after receiving the strong support of the BOA in Baxter's case, BSSF spokesman John Clark is highly confident the Scot will not suffer that fate.

Clark said: "There is a BOA by-law which kicks in and that effectively prevents him from taking part in the next Olympics. However, there is scope within their own by-laws to appeal that position. We are very confident that appeal will be heard favourably by the BOA - especially as they have been so supportive of the whole process all along.

"We intend to appeal as a matter of course to the BOA against by-law number four which prevents Alain from being in the next Olympics.

"It is actually down to the BOA's own disciplinary committee to decide that and, without wishing to second-guess their decision, I would say it would be a reasonable assumption that they would look favourably on the appeal."

Baxter is determined to put the massive disappointment of the CAS decision behind him ahead of the new season which begins next month. But he was particularly delighted to have his name cleared of any suggestions of cheating after he ingested the substance from a US nasal spray.

Baxter said even though the decision was "strict and tough", his biggest relief was that "they had cleared my name, that I'm not classed as a cheat".

He added: "I'm gutted not to be getting my medal back but there's a lot of positive things to come out of this. I also feel it's not just my loss. I'm getting things back as normal and in future maybe the policies will change a little bit."

But Baxter admitted the ruling by the CAS is "confusing". He said: "It's pretty confusing why they have cleared my name, but they have decided not to give me the medal back. Nothing's been clear, but what can you do about it?"