Vanessa-Mae gets skiing ban overturned

Vanessa-Mae, the professional violinist who benefited from fixed races in Slovenia that helped her qualify to compete as a skier in the Sochi Olympics, has had her four-year ban lifted by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). However, her last-place finish from Sochi – also nullified in the initial ruling by the FIS – was not restored. Mae finished more than 50 seconds behind winner Tina Maze in the giant slalom.

Mae, who was born in Singapore and raised in Britain, raced for her father’s native country of Thailand and skied under the name of Vanessa Vanakorn. Prior to the Olympics, Mae was known more for her violin profession where she sold over 10 million records worldwide.

In November, the FIS found Mae guilty of participating in races that were fixed to allow her to earn points that would make her eligible to compete in the Sochi Olympics. FIS issued a statement in November saying that it had “found to its comfortable satisfaction” that the results of the four women’s giant slalom races in Krvavec, Slovenia, were manipulated, especially in regard to the points awarded to Vanessa-Mae.

According the the FIS report, the races were organized at the request of Vanessa-Mae’s management company and the Thailand Olympic Committee to enable her to meet the Sochi qualifying criteria. Racers who were not present at the event were listed on the results sheet and times of those who participated were manipulated to improve the penalty for the race, all of which benefited Mae.

The Slovenian Ski Association subsequently suspended five of its officials who took part in the races in question and announced an investigation into alleged improprieties regarding the results of the races concerned. FIS later issued a one-year ban to the officials involved.

The races were the final events for Mae to participate in to earn the points necessary to compete in Sochi. Through the investigation, FIS found that the weather conditions were so bad that the races would have usually been canceled and without the points in question, Vanessa-Mae would not have been eligible to compete at the Olympic Games.

Mae had 21 days to appeal the decision made by the FIS and she immediately appealed to CAS. On Friday, the court cleared Vanessa-Mae of breaching the FIS betting and other anti-corruption rules saying that “in its decision, the CAS Panel accepted the position of the FIS that a number of irregularities had occurred in the organization and management of the four races in question, but could not find, to its comfortable satisfaction, evidence of any manipulation by Vanessa Vanakorn herself that justified the guilty finding and the imposition of a four-year ban.

“Accordingly, the decision of the FIS Hearing Panel in relation to Ms. Vanakorn is annulled and her four-year ban is lifted.”