Ski-ing
Three Scottish skiers were yesterday named
by the British Olympic Association in an Alpine ski team of six to represent Britain at the Winter Games which start in Nagano, Japan, on
February 7.
Making their Olympic debut will be Spey Valleybased British champions Alain Baxter (Aviemore) and Andrew Freshwater (Loch Insh).
Both skied creditably at last year's World Alpine Championships in Italy.
Slalom skier Baxter has more than halved his world ranking over the past year to move to the doorstep of the World's top 100 in Giant Slalom, and has lately paced some of the world's best in training.
Freshwater showed no sign of nerves on his first world championship outing last year and was heading for a top 15 place overall in the Combined when he lacerated his face in the Combined Slalom.
Emma Carrick-Anderson (Dunblane) is selected primarily on the basis of her excellent form last year which included eleventh place in the World Championships Women's Slalom in Sestriere, Italy.
Although she has struggled to find her best at World Cup level, she has gained a reputation as a big occasion skier since taking eighth place in the Women's Combined Slalom at her first Olympics as a 16-year old in 1992 in France.
Graham Bell, who will ski in his fifth Winter Games, will require major improvement to his recent form to better the eighth place his brother, Martin, took at Britain's best men's Olympic downhill in 1988.
Bell's achievement of competing at five Olympics will be matched by Aviemore biathlete Michael Dixon.
French-based brother-and-sister, James and Sophie Ormond ,have been selected.
Sophie is now Britain's top-ranked female GS skier, while James was last year's British Slalom champion.
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