Vanessa Mae, the former violin prodigy, is setting aside her musical talents for a shot at representing Thailand at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. telegraph.co.uk tells us more. 

It’s no surprise, really, that her skiing garb – its dents and scratches testimony to how seriously she takes the sport – should sit on top of her beloved piano. (And it is perhaps a subtle, subconscious suggestion that music is taking something of a back seat these days: “There has been a marked slowing down in my life.”) No surprise since the sudden, albeit brief, announcement last week that Vanessa-Mae Vanakorn Nicholson – the Singapore-born violin virtuoso and child prodigy who matured into the sultry siren who sexed up the staid world of classical music – is hoping to represent Thailand as a downhill skier at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

She goes on to say, “It has been my dream, and I am hoping people will accept I just want to give it my best. To even get to the Olympics, I have to qualify for the 2013 World Championships and the standard is high. I know I am always going to be a few points behind the top guys. I am taking a plunge. I am British, but realistically there is no way I could represent my own country, but because my natural father is Thai, they have accepted me.”

Read more here telegraph.co.uk