Vanessa Mae banned over Olympic ski fix

FILE - In this Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2014 file photo, violinist Vanessa Mae starting under her father name as Vanessa Vanakorn for Thailand, celebrates. Photo / AP

Thailand's violinist-turned-skier Vanessa Mae has been banned from skiing competitively for four years after being found guilty of manipulating results in order to qualify for the Winter Olympics.

Investigators for the International Skiing Federation (FIS) concluded that results were manipulated during trials in Slovenia to enable the 35-year-old violinist, skiing under her real name Vanessa Mae Vanakorn, to compete in the Russian resort of Sochi in February, a statement said on Tuesday.

The FIS report discovered a number of anomalies, including a skiier who had fallen being included in the final standings.

The weather conditions had been so bad that no regular race could be held and "any comparable competition in Slovenia would have been cancelled" according to the competition referee.

And the race courses were not changed for the second runs as required by the FIS rules.

The hearing panel found that the results of the four ladies giant slalom races that took place in January 2014 were manipulated, resulting in the calculation of FIS Points that did not reflect the true performance of the competitors, particularly Mae, the statement added."

In the event that the results of the competitions are annulled, Vanessa Vanakorn (THA), Federica Selva (RSM) and Ieva Januskeviciute (LTU) would not have achieved the necessary FIS point performance level to be eligible to participate in the Olympic Winter Games."

FIS also banned a number of officials over the incident. The federation report at the time documented irregularities ranging from falsified starting lists and rankings and even race dates, but federation president president Jurij Zurej said there was no evidence that "the competitor for whom the races had been fixed knew about these violations".

"We have no evidence that a bribe was given... there are signs that money was paid but we still do not know for what purpose," he added.In Sochi, the Singapore-born British former child prodigy who admitted she had begun training just six months before the Olympics, came 67th and last in the giant slalom, far behind the rest of the field.

-AFP