British Olympic medals are very much in the news at the moment. Who'd have thought that as I write Team GB is sitting third in the medal table! It's great that Britain is achieving worldwide sporting success, to the extent that even the Aussies are whinging.
As a nation, we've always been pretty hard on our sportsmen. Tim Henman's failure to win Wimbledon was a disappointment to us, despite the fact that he was in the world's top ten for 10 years, and for much of those ten years tennis was dominated by two of the greatest players in history - Pete Sampras and Roger Federer.
And the achievement of Alain Baxter, the only Brit to ever win an Olympic skiing medal, has been dismissed and forgotten 
Alain Baxter finished third in the Slalom in the Salt Lake City games of 2002, and was awarded the bronze medal. A few days later he was stripped of the medal and banned for 3 months when it was found he had tested positive for a banned substance, lev-methamphetamine. Retracing his footsteps, Alain found that the substance had come from a Vicks inhaler he had purchased from a local pharmacy. Alain protested his innocence, on appeal the suspension was lifted, and it was recognised that he had inadvertently "taken" the drug. However the bronze medal was not returned.
Since then Alain has worked hard to regain his status. Superstars, the popular TV series, has brought him back into the public eye. In 2004 he was the series champion and demonstrated just what an all round athete he is - beating his opponents in diverse disciplines. He is an athlete we should be proud of, and it's about time we recognised his skill and talent.
Now Alain is preparing for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. In a bid to win sponsorship Alain has produced his own fund-raising calendar where you can certainly admire his "athleticism".
We did ask for a sneak preview but unfortunately for us his press office can't release the photos until the calendar is released - so sorry girls, but he did make Page 3 in The Scottish Sun!
You can follow Alain's story on his website. We would like to wish him all the best and look forward to seeing him on the podium in 2010.
