Noel Baxter

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Noel Baxter Alpine skiing
nation United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom
birthday 25th July 1981 (age 39)
place of birth Dundee ,  Scotland
size 173 cm
Weight 73 kg
job Ski trainer
Career
discipline Giant slalom , slalom ,
combination
society Cairngorm Ski Club
status resigned
End of career March 2013
Placements in the Alpine Ski World Cup
 Individual World Cup debut January 13, 2002
 Overall World Cup 135th ( 2003/04 )
 Slalom World Cup 56th (2003/04)
 Combination World Cup 49th ( 2006/07 )
 

Noel Baxter (born July 25, 1981 in Dundee , Scotland ) is a retired British ski racer . He took part in the Olympic Games and World Championships several times and specialized in the technical disciplines of slalom and giant slalom . He is currently coaching the British Women's World Cup team. His older half-brother Alain Baxter was also a ski racer.

biography

Beginnings and European Cup

Noel Baxter comes from Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands and is a member of the Cairngorm Ski Club named after the mountain of the same name . His grandmother May Baxter († 2011), who worked in the textile industry, is considered a ski pioneer in Scotland. Like his half-brother Alain, who was eight years his senior, father Ian was a ski racer. Cousin Lesley McKenna was a snowboarder in the halfpipe . Not least because of the Baxter and McKenna families, Aviemore is known as the place with the highest concentration of Olympians in Great Britain.

In the late winter of 1997, at the age of 15, he competed in his first FIS races . Two years later he scored his first two victories at home races in the Nevis Range . In the same season he took part in a Junior World Championship for the first time in Pra-Loup , but did not get beyond the ranks 51 and 57 in giant slalom and Super-G . He was eliminated in the slalom. At his second and last JWM competition, in February 2001 in Verbier , he was able to improve slightly and finished 26th and 43rd in slalom and giant slalom. The following December he made his debut in Val Thorens in the European Cup . By March 2011 he had competed in 88 EC races and was able to place himself in the top ten seven times. His best results were three fifth places in the slalom. He achieved two of them on Podkoren in Kranjska Gora (January 2003 and March 2006), one in Oberjoch (February 2010). His highest ranking in the overall ranking was 51st in the 2003/04 season , in the slalom ranking he was 13th in 2005/06 . He achieved better results in the South American Cup , in which he celebrated three victories in the summer of 2006, and in the Australian New Zealand Cup , in which he won once in 2009.

World Cup and first major events

On January 13, 2002, Baxter made his World Cup debut in the Wengen slalom . With starts in two other classics, the slaloms in Kitzbühel and Schladming , he prepared for his first Olympic Winter Games and was part of the six-person ski squad in the United Kingdom in Salt Lake City . Brother Alain attracted a lot of attention in the course of these games when he was allowed to celebrate the first British alpine medal with slalom bronze, but was later disqualified because of an unauthorized preparation in his inhaler . Noel's 20th place in the same race was largely ignored.

In February 2003, he contested his first world championship in St. Moritz and finished 24th in his favorite discipline, slalom. In the following winters he completed a mixture of World Cup, European Cup and FIS races and competed in all major events up to and including the 2009 World Championships in Val-d'Isère . In the World Cup, he contested a total of 51 races, including mostly slaloms. He was only able to classify himself among the top 30 three times and win World Cup points twice. He achieved this for the first time in January 2004 with rank 26 in the Lauberhorn Slalom . Only one month later he was able to build on it as 27th from St. Anton , but received no points due to the too great time lag. In November 2006 he reached his only point placement in this discipline with rank 28 in the combination of Beaver Creek .

Successes and end of career

Baxter was more successful at the national level. Between 2003 and 2010 he won seven British championship titles, four of them in slalom and three in giant slalom. He was also runner-up in downhill , super-G and slalom. He achieved his best result in five world championships in 2007 in Åre , where he finished 15th in the slalom. At the 2006 Olympic Games in Turin , he achieved 14th place in the combination for the best Olympic result for a Brit in this discipline. In the slalom, he equalized his placement from Salt Lake City. A third Olympic participation at the Games in Vancouver was denied. Mother Janice intervened with Sports Minister Tessa Jowell against what she believed to be unfair disregard for her son and tried unsuccessfully with the help of a lawyer to force a start in the slalom. Following his final full season, Baxter underwent anterior cruciate ligament surgery in May 2011 . The Brit suffered a total of six knee injuries during his career.

In October 2012, Baxter announced his retirement from active competitive sports. Due to lack of money and persistent injuries, he was no longer able to achieve his last goal, participation in the Olympic Games in Sochi . His long-time training partner Chemmy Alcott praised him as a “fantastic skier”. In March 2013, he contested his last two FIS races in Canada.

Noel Baxter stayed in skiing after the end of his career and is currently training the British women's World Cup team after working for the Spanish team.

successes

Olympic games

World championships

World cup

  • 3 placements among the best 30

World Cup ratings

season total slalom combination
space Points space Points space Points
2003/04 135. 5 56. 5 - -
2006/07 143. 3 - - 49. 3

South American Cup

  • 2006 season: 4th overall ranking, 2nd giant slalom ranking, 4th combined ranking
  • 5 podium places, including 3 wins:
date place country discipline
August 24, 2006 Las Leñas Argentina Giant slalom
September 2, 2006 La Parva Chile slalom
September 3, 2006 El Colorado Chile Giant slalom
  1. ↑ The races of the South American Cup are held annually in August and September (southern winter) and are assigned to the coming international season.

Australian New Zealand Cup

  • Season 2009: 4th overall ranking, 1st combined ranking, 3rd slalom ranking, 7th Super-G ranking
  • 2010 season: 7th slalom ranking
  • 4 podium places, including 1 victory:
date place country discipline
September 9, 2009 Mount Hutt New Zealand Super combination
  1. ↑ The races of the Australian New Zealand Cup are held annually in August and September (southern winter) and are already included in the coming international season.

Junior World Championships

More Achievements

  • 7 British championship titles (slalom 2003, 2006, 2007 and 2010, giant slalom 2004, 2005 and 2006)
  • 3 British runner-up titles (Downhill 2003, Super-G 2004, Slalom 2004)
  • 1 podium in the Nor-Am Cup
  • 1 podium in the Far East Cup
  • 10 victories in FIS races

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Noel Baxter. Sports Reference LLC, accessed January 6, 2019 .
  2. ^ A b c Doug Gillon: Last chance for Noel Baxter. In: Herald Sport , February 20, 2010 edition. Online , accessed January 6, 2019.
  3. ↑ Jane Candlish: Top north snowsports athletes pay tributes to grandmother. In: The Press and Journal (Inverness) , July 29, 2011 edition. Online , accessed January 6, 2019.
  4. ↑ Jon Henderson: Cool Britannia. The Guardian , February 1, 2004, accessed January 6, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Date for surgery. Noel Baxter, May 13, 2011, accessed January 6, 2019 .
  6. ↑ a b Noel Baxter. CHHP, accessed January 6, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Nick Hope: Noel Baxter quits skiing because of injury and funding struggles. BBC , October 4, 2012, accessed January 6, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Great Britain names 2018/19 alpine national team. FIS , May 21, 2018, accessed on January 6, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Baxter, Noel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British ski racer
DATE OF BIRTH July 25, 1981
PLACE OF BIRTH Dundee