Violinist Vanessa Mae To Ski Race in Sochi
Violinist Vanessa Mae To Ski Race in Sochi
Published : 22-Jan-2014 08:27
Along with the 19 members of the British squad announced to compete in the Sochi winter Olympics in just over two weeks' time this morning, the world famous violinist Vanessa Mae has been announced as the 20th Brit to compete at the Games.
Only Mae, who was born in Singapore and has lived in Zermatt since 2009, is not part of the British squad and will be racing for Thailand, the first person ever to do so in downhill skiing, and racing under her natural father's name as Vanessa Vanakorn, he is from Thailand.
35 year old Mae has been a keen skier since a young child and had expressed her desire to race for Thailand (being unable to reach the qualification standard to join the UK team) for several years.
Under IOC rules, racers from countries who do not have a competitor in the world top 500 can still take part if they reach a certain qualification standard. Thailand have no one in the top 500 in any snow sport and Mae, who is reported to rank just outside the world top 3,000 in giant slalom, completed in four back-to-back ski races in Slovenia at the weekend and is reported to have just made the standard required from her race results.
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