VIENNA: Thailand’s 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, the International Skiing Federation (FIS) said yesterday.
FIS investigators 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.
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.
“After considering written submissions and testimony at a hearing, the Hearing Panel found that the results of the four ladies giant slalom races that took place on 18th and 19th January 18 2014 were manipulated, resulting in the calculation of FIS Points that do not reflect the true performance of the competitors that participated in those events and in particular the points awarded to Vanessa Vanakorn (Mae),” the statement added.AFP
