By Jim van Wijk and Andy Hampson, PA Sport

Even Alain Baxter could not really comprehend just how he ended up on the medal rostrum at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

After all only a few days earlier, the man they call 'The Highlander' had been forced to pull out of the giant slalom because of a knee injury he suffered in the build-up to the Utah games.

But the 28-year-old from Aviemore snatched an unlikely bronze on his second run down the tough 'Know You Don't' course in the Wasatch Mountains as the slalom's glamour boys failed to follow his example.

Yet should Baxter's achievement - which marked Great Britain's first Winter Olympics medal on snow - have come as such a surprise, even to himself?

"It is unbelievable. I just don't understand. Incredible," he said after Frenchman Jean-Pierre Vidal had kept his nerve while all about him - bar one - lost theirs to cruise to gold and knock Baxter down to bronze.

But by then it hardly mattered, as Baxter had already come full circle.

The Scot - who has the run of the Cairngorm Ski Club's slopes, but spends large chunks of his training year in Austria and France - had missed a gate and failed to finish in his first Winter Games in Nagano four years ago.

But a run of good World Cup performances marked him out as potentially one of Britain's best.

And on Saturday, the 10-time national champion justified the hype.

Baxter seemed destined to become a star of the slopes from birth, named after 1970s World Cup slalom king Alain Penz of France.

Both his parents, Iain and Sue, are former national-level skiers and he inherited all his family's love of the sport, along with younger half-brother Noel and snowboarding cousin Lesley McKenna, both fellow competitors in Utah.

Baxter grew up a talented sportsman in Aviemore and also excelled at both shinty and ice hockey.

He was even offered a professional ice hockey contract at the formation of the British Superleague in 1996, but declined the offer to concentrate on the sport he left school at 15 to pursue.

Ice hockey remains part of his life, with Scottish First Division side Perth Panthers retaining his registration, but Alpine skiing, and more particularly the twists and turns of the slalom, was always his first love.

Baxter joined the British ski team in 1991 and the road to the top has been a long and arduous one.

Training in Europe on a regular basis, there were times when he often considered quitting due to lack of funding.

But Baxter stuck with the sport, impressing at National Championships and winning a place in the Olympic squad for Nagano four years ago.

He made little impact amongst the world's elite, finishing 31st in the giant slalom and missing a gate in the slalom - but the sport's technological revolution of the late 1990s transformed his career.

The new shorter 'carving' skis took the sport to a new level and Baxter was one of many to take full advantage.

After linking up with new coach Christian Schwalger, the 2000-01 season proved his breakthrough year, with 10 top-10 finishes in the World Cup, including a career-best third at Are, Sweden, in March.

He went into the current season ranked number 63 in the world and with high hopes, but initial results proved disappointing. That all changed in dramatic style with his sensational second run at Deer Valley.

His slalom preparation had started controversially, though, after the British Olympic Association requested he remove the cross of St Andrew dyed into his hair as it could be construed a political statement.

Instead he dyed it completely blue.

But whilst blue maybe the colour of his hair, it is far from how he will be feeling now after skiing his way into British sporting history - and changing his life forever.