A hotly-tipped Olympic skier says he'll cut his medal in half if he wins, to honor his coach who was stripped of one 20 years ago

• The British alpine skier Dave Ryding is aiming for a medal at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
• If he wins one, he says he will cut it in half and share it with his trainer Alain Baxter.

The alpine skier Dave Ryding has said he will cut his medal in half and give it to his trainer, who was once controversially stripped of his own, if he makes the podium at the Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Ryding, who is competing in his fourth games, made the pledge after being named as one of Great Britain's two flag bearers for Friday's opening ceremony, alongside the curler Eve Muirhead.

The 35-year-old's trainer, Alain Baxter, won bronze for Team GB in the slalom at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. However, he was then stripped of his medal after he tested positive for a banned stimulant contained in a nasal inhaler he bought while in the United States.

"Alain is working with my team now," said Ryding, who won his first ever World Cup gold medal in January, and is in red hot form ahead of the Winter Olympics.

"He's one of the assistant coaches. I remember growing up watching him. I was then fortunate enough to do a few months before he retired – they put me on to his team for a few months so I knew him quite well.

"I still remember watching him win the medal and it ignited something inside me whether it was passion, excitement, thrill. I don't know what it was.

"But I can still remember really getting this feeling and Alain will always be – whatever I achieve, Alain for me will be here because that's how you perceive your heroes. If he didn't do what he did in Salt Lake, who knows if I would have had the drive, the belief to do what I did?"

Ryding added: "What went on after that was proven that [Baxter's medal] shouldn't have been taken away and it was such unfortunate circumstances.

After the 2002 games, Baxter successfully appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to be cleared of being a drugs cheat, however failed in his bid to have his medal reinstated.

"God help us that no one has to go through it again. It affected our sport. It affected him massively. If I was to get a medal, I think the best thing I could do was cut it in half and give him half of it."

Elsewhere, British freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy has hit out at China, suggesting the nation is not fit to host the Winter Olympics because of its reported human rights abuses.

Millions of China's Uyghur Muslim population have been detained in prison-like camps since 2016, which China has continually insisted are "vocational educational and training centers."

"I think the IOC should take a stance against a lot of these atrocities and stand up for important issues, and by not granting those countries the right to host the Games they could create positive change in those places," Kenworthy told BBC Sport.

"I know the Olympics are so important to China and they are always so high up in the medal count, that I feel like by actually taking a stance against them in a real tangible way you could probably make some positive change.

"It's all about money, it seems like. I don't really think they're well suited to host the Games."