Skiing: C4's downhill fillip

Alpine skiing is to receive some much-needed exposure in Britain after Channel 4 signed a three-year deal to broadcast World Cup meetings.

From next month, coverage will feature the sport's leading names, including the former Olympic and world champion Franz Klammer and the British skier Alain Baxter, who last week failed in his appeal to retain his Olympic bronze medal but had a three-month ban lifted by the International Ski Federation. The majority of Baxter's slalom races will be shown on Channel 4.

Germany's Martin Schmitt, four times the world champion, will miss the start of the ski jumping season due to a kneecap injury. Doctors had to remove more fluid from the knee after the 24-year-old underwent an operation last month. Schmitt is expected to miss the first World Cup meeting on 29 November in Kuusamo, Finland.