Mae, 35, took part in a number of qualifying races for the Winter Olympics in Krvavcu, Slovenia, in January and managed to secure a place at Sochi, where she competed as Vanessa Vanakorn due to her father being a Thai citizen.

But the Slovenian Ski Association revealed last Friday (July 11) those results may now be in doubt after it uncovered evidence officials had falsified times and rankings "at the behest of Thai ski officials".

As a result, the governing body imposed provisional four-year bans on four of its officials, including the head of the country's Alpine skiing body, Vlado Makuc, and has launched an investigation involving the Slovenian police.

Slovenian Ski Association President Jurij Zurej revealed dates, times and rankings may have been falsified during the races on January 18 and 19 but suggested Mae might not have known about the violations or colluded in them.

Mae, who was born in Singapore, took part in the qualifying events in Slovenia as Thailand does not have a recognised national governing body for skiing and does not have the natural climate to host skiing events.

But NOCT President General Yutthasak Sasiprabha has denied Thai officials were involved in the alleged scam.

"Our duty was only to endorse her and send her to compete at the Games," he said.

"Because we don't have a skiing sport association, what we did was to look at the documentation and endorse her for the Games.

"We did not even know the qualifying process."

Slovenian ski officials claim that races were fixed to allow Vanessa Mae to qualify to compete for Thailand for Sochi 2014 ©Getty Images



Thailand had no skiers ranked in the world's top 500 at the time, allowing it to send one man and one woman to compete in slalom and giant slalom at the Games provided they produced an average of 140 points or less over a series of International Ski Federation (FIS) races.

Mae achieved the standard in Slovenia, while Kanes Sucharitakul also qualified to represent Thailand at Sochi 2014 in men's Alpine skiing.

The Slovenian Ski Association will present its findings to FIS once an investigation is complete.

NOCT vice-president Charoen Wattanasin claimed the problem could stem from a problem within the Slovenian governing body.

"I believe it was their internal conflict," he said.

"She joined the qualifying events by herself.

"It had nothing to do with Thai officials."

A spokesman for Mae, who finished last out of 67 competitors in Sochi, told insidethegames last Friday the famous musician "was in a remote destination" and "enjoying other activities".

Earlier this year, Mae was invited by International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach to join a Working Group on Culture as part of the Agenda 2020 reform process.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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