{"id":10367,"date":"2014-12-02T02:40:19","date_gmt":"2014-12-02T07:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/?p=10367"},"modified":"2014-12-02T03:58:31","modified_gmt":"2014-12-02T08:58:31","slug":"stunning-international-skiing-news-the-female-violinist-vanessa-mae-has-been-banned-for-four-years-for-fiddling-race-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/?p=10367","title":{"rendered":"Stunning International Skiing News: The Female Violinist, Vanessa-Mae Vanakorn Nicholson, has been banned for four years for fiddling race results."},"content":{"rendered":"

The International Ski Federation has banned Singapore-born British violinist Vanessa Mae from competition for four years after finding her guilty of manipulating results in order to qualify for the Olympics.<\/h2>\n
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\"\" Thailand’s Vanessa Vanakorn (Vanessa Mae) competes during the Women’s Alpine Skiing Giant Slalom at the Rosa Khutor Alpine Centre during the Sochi Winter Olympics on Feb 18, 2014. (above)
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\u00a0Glamorous violinist\u00a0Vanessa Mae’s dreams of becoming a professional skier took a major tumble on Tuesday (Nov 11) after she was banned for four years over her rigged qualification for the Thai team at the Sochi Winter Olympics.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The International Skiing Federation (FIS) said that a hearing panel had established that the qualifying event, held in a blizzard in January 2014 in Slovenia in southeastern Europe, was riddled with irregularities. The “manipulated” races on Jan 18-19 resulted in points calculations “that do not reflect the true performance of the competitors that participated … and in particular the points awarded to Vanessa Vanakorn (Mae),” the FIS said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mae, 36, a former child prodigy with the violin born in Singapore to Thai and Chinese parents but who grew up in Britain, was given a four-year ban from participation in any FIS-sanctioned events worldwide.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two giant slalom races in the Krvavec resort on Jan 19 were recorded as involving a competitor who was not present, while someone else who fell over was placed second after having 10 seconds taken off her time, the FIS said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Other problems included at least one competitor who started away from the starting gate “outside the automatic timing wand that was manually opened by the starter when she was already on the course,” the FIS said in a statement. A previously retired competitor with the best FIS points in the competition took part for the sole purpose of lowering the penalty for the other participants, and the race courses were not changed for the second runs as stipulated by the FIS.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In addition, weather conditions were so bad that no regular race could be held and “any comparable competition in Slovenia would have been cancelled,” according to the competition referee.<\/strong><\/p>\n

FIS banned Slovenia’s Borut Hrobat, in charge of the race, for two years, while FIS technical delegate Fabio De Cassan of Italy, Slovenia’s race timer Matiaz Goltez, referee Vlado Makuc and starter Uros Sinkovec were all banned for a year.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Hearing Panel issued a worldwide four-year ban against Vanessa-Mae,\u00a0<\/sup> two-year ban against the Chief of Race Borut Hrobat<\/a>, and one-year bans against the FIS Technical Delegate, Chief of Timing, Referee, and Starter.\u00a0<\/sup> FIS president Gian-Franco Kasper<\/a> commented to Associated Press<\/a> concerning the violations: “Those who have been sanctioned have been sanctioned for good reason. At first we were laughing when we heard it. But then we realised it’s quite a serious thing.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

As two or more participants worked in combination to violate the rules, the FIS Hearing Panel recommended that all four events during the Krvavec competition be annulled. The Hearing Panel noted that, if the results were to be annulled by the FIS Council, it will mean that Vanessa-Mae, Federica Selva<\/a> of San Marino, and Ieva Janu\u0161kevi\u010di\u016bt\u0117<\/a> of Lithuania will have not actually qualified for the 2014 Olympic Games. Vanessa-Mae issued a statement calling the ban “nonsensical” and saying “we will” appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The FIS Council met on 18 November and cancelled the results of “all four giant slalom races” at Krvavec and issued a press release saying that “Vanessa Vanakorn (THA) who competed in the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games therefore did not qualify and should not have been participating in the Sochi 2014 Games.” The FIS Council was of the opinion that Fredrica Selva and Ieva Janu\u0161kevi\u010di\u016bt\u0117 “were victims of the manipulated races”, and forwarded the information to the International Olympic Committee<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The International Olympic Committee has said it will not act until it knows the results of any appeals.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Thailand’s first ever female skier at an Olympic Games in the Russian resort of Sochi in February, Mae – racing under her father’s surname Vanakorn – made headlines and added a splash of glamour to the event. But unlike her successful music career with millions of album sold, her performance on the piste as one half of the Thai team was underwhelming, coming 67th and last in the giant slalom, far behind the rest of the field.”I expected to be last but at the end of the day the Olympics is a great opportunity,” she said at the time.\u00a0“I nearly crashed three times, but I made it down and that was the main thing.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mae has described music as her “lifelong passion” but skiing as her “lifelong hobby”.\u00a0The FIS said she has 21 days to appeal the decision.<\/strong><\/p>\n

ABOUT THE PERSON, Vanessa-Mae Vanakorn Nicholson<\/span>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vanessa-Mae was born in Singapore<\/a><\/span>\u00a0 <\/i><\/sup> to Vorapong Vanakorn, an English hotelier of Thai<\/a> ancestry<\/span> <\/i>who lives in Singapore,\u00a0<\/sup> and Pamela Soei Luang Tan, a Chinese<\/a> lawyer and semi-professional concert pianist. After her parents separated, her mother married Graham Nicholson, a British attorney who adopted Vanessa-Mae, and the family moved to England when Vanessa-Mae was four years old. She grew up in London and holds British citizenship. She began playing piano at the age of three and violin at five.
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At age eight, Vanessa-Mae began attending the Francis Holland School<\/a> in London, and at eleven, after her concert debut in 1988, she enrolled at the Royal College of Music<\/a> in London.
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In 1996, Vanessa-Mae’s birth father publicly criticised and disowned her, adding that “she looks like a soft-porn showgirl”,[5]<\/a><\/sup> after seeing pictures of his scantily clad daughter to promote her albums. Vanessa-Mae’s mother and stepfather defended her, saying that her image is none of his business.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Musical career<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Vanessa-Mae became notable in the United Kingdom in her childhood making regular appearances on television (such as Blue Peter<\/a><\/i>) mostly involving classical music and conservative style. She made her international professional debut at age ten in 1988 at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival<\/a> in Germany, and the same year made her concerto debut on stage with the Philharmonia Orchestra<\/a> in London.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/i><\/sup> At age thirteen, she became the youngest soloist to record both the Beethoven<\/a> and Tchaikovsky<\/a> violin concertos, according to Guinness World Records<\/a><\/i>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

After entering her teens, Vanessa-Mae broke away from her traditional classical influences and became known for her more distinct appearance, appearing in music videos in more stylised outfits.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/i><\/sup>Her first pop-style album, The Violin Player<\/a><\/i>, was released in 1995. She appeared on the 1997 Janet Jackson<\/a> album The Velvet Rope<\/a><\/i> playing a violin solo on the song “Velvet Rope”.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vanessa-Mae was managed by her mother, who owns a private recording label and music agency, until 1999,<\/span> <\/i> when Vanessa-Mae fired her as her manager.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On 7 March 2002 Vanessa-Mae performed a variation of Antonio Vivaldi<\/a>: The Four Seasons<\/a><\/i> \u2013 “Summer: III. Presto”<\/span><\/i>during the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Paralympics<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In April 2006, Vanessa-Mae was ranked as the wealthiest young entertainer under 30 in the UK in the Sunday Times Rich List<\/a> 2006, having an estimated fortune of about \u00a332\u00a0million stemming from concerts and record sales of over an estimated 10 million copies worldwide.<\/span>
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In 2006, Vanessa-Mae announced that she would be releasing a new album sometime between 2007 and 2008. The album was said to draw inspiration from classic ballets and opera themes. A new album was expected in 2009, <\/i><\/i> but the year ended without the expected release.
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In October 2011, Vanessa-Mae attended celebrations in Chechnya<\/a> on the birthday of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov<\/a> along with several other celebrities, “played a bit of Vivaldi\u2019s ‘Four Seasons’<\/a> utterly mechanically” according to The Moscow Times<\/a><\/i> , and Vanessa Mae reportedly receiving $500,000 for her performance. When asked where the money comes from to pay for performances, Kadyrov replied that “Allah gives it to us”.\u00a0<\/sup> Human rights groups, who had urged the celebrities to cancel their appearances because of human rights abuses<\/a> carried out under Kadyrov, criticised her and other celebrities for attending the event.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The International Ski Federation has banned Singapore-born British violinist Vanessa Mae from competition for four years after finding her guilty of manipulating results in order to qualify for the Olympics. Thailand’s Vanessa Vanakorn (Vanessa Mae) competes during the Women’s Alpine Skiing Giant Slalom at the Rosa Khutor Alpine Centre during the Sochi Winter Olympics on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8,14,1,7,10],"tags":[872,870,871],"class_list":["post-10367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-entertainment","category-most-commented","category-news","category-sports","category-world","tag-international-ski-federation","tag-international-skiing-results","tag-vanessa-mae","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10367\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}