Image of Olympic skier and violinist Vanessa-Mae
Four Slovenian ski officials have been suspended for allegedly rigging the results of violinist Vanessa-Mae to help her qualify for the Winter Olympics in Sochi.
In order to compete in Sochi Vanessa-Mae needed to earn enough points to be eligible for the games. To do this she had to compete in official races in Sweden, Norway, Slovenia and Switzerland.
The Slovenian Ski Association said Friday it found evidence indicating that the races it hosted in January were “fixed at the behest of Thai ski officials to meet her qualifying criteria for Sochi.”
Vanessa-Mae competed in Sochi for Thailand, finishing a distant last in giant slalom. She clocked the two runs in a total of 3 minutes, 26.97 seconds — 50.1 seconds slower than gold medalist Tina Maze of Slovenia.
The Slovenian association president, Jurij Zurej, said that Vanessa-Mae might not have known about the violations at the time.
