Vanessa Mae was allowed to ski at 2014 Winter Olympics after

[Rov4ni]

I still can't believe it!!! I wish this isn't true,,
This news certainly will hurt her reputation as musician

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/others ... ddled.html

[Xanthippe]

I still can't believe it!!! I wish this isn't true,,
This news certainly will hurt her reputation as musician

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/others ... ddled.html

I've read these reports too, and this will certainly hurt her reputation as did her performance for the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov in 2011.

There is still no proof that Vanessa-Mae was aware of these manipulations, nor that she was part of it, but this will do her no good.

[CarrollTowerCX]

I had seen references to this several days ago, and have read two other notices about this. It is a damn shame that it happened, but it seems to have been concocted by the Thai Olympic Committee in concurrence with Slovenia's Ski Assn. and without any knowledge or involvement with our Vanessa-Mae.

I am sure she had no knowledge of this!

See the following from the article in question along withe others that I have read:
AC-DC-3195 by jrmclemore1, on Flickr

CX

[Xanthippe]

I am sure she had no knowledge of this!


CX

I do not know all the details from all reports on this issue (and I am not looking into it), so I can not be certain about her not knowing. Participating in a junior event as qualification run, does not appear to me as a normal selection procedure for access to the Olympics?

[Benji]

Despite how I feel about her music and her career, it's hard imagining Vanessa-Mae having no knowledge of the situation. We will never know for sure. This isn't the first time Vanessa has been involved in a scandal; at least in my view.

Right after the launch of her Toccata & Fugue single in January 1995, Vanessa made headlines when her expensive and frankly, irreplaceable Guadagnini violin was stolen out of her home. Somehow I found the story hard to believe that someone would break into her home, with no apparent damage nor anything else was taken of value, without anyone knowing. The timing was also too convenient, as it just happened that her violin was "found" right before her Red Hot worldwide tour was about to start. Nothing was ever said about who the perpetrator was and of any charges that were filed. I think it was a publicity stunt.

Vanessa is the kind of girl who really couldn't care less what others may think of her. She will continue on. I highly doubt that she was would even speak on the issue.

[Xanthippe]

So far Vanessa-Mae has not commented on this issue. This is the same as the controversy around her performance for the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov in 2011. Despite all the rumble and blames on her, she choose to keep silence.

I am not sure if that is wise. Apparently, Vanessa-Mae doesn't care at all what others might think of it all.

I think that her silence might be seen as an indication that she has no intention to record an other album anymore - she simple doesn't care because she does not see herself in the spotlights anymore.

About the stolen violin that was returned so shortly before the start of her Red Hot UK tour in the UK. I never quite knew what to think about this. As far as I can remember, we never discussed this subject in this forum. This publicity trick, if this would indeed be the case, might come from the mind of Pamela and Vanessa-Mae might have nothing to do with it, as she was only a child then and could certainly not be hold accountable for it. Anyway, a Scotland Yard officer officially handed over the violin to Vanessa-Mae after it was rescued, and this fact might indicate somehow that the violin was missing indeed. Would it be possible that Scotland Yard let itself be used for a publicity trick?

I would like to advice to Vanessa-Mae to speak out about the current issue because it is ruining her undisputed reputation, if the Chechen affair didn't do this already.

[Xanthippe]

Thai officials deny helping Vanessa-Mae.

General Yutthasak Sasiprabha, president of the Thai Olympic Committee denies offering any help to Vanessa-Mae in qualifying for the Olympics. He said: "Our duty was only to endorse her and send her to compete at the Games. 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."


This sounds reasonable to me. It would be highly unlikely that Thailand would have a skiing sport association. Moreover, the idea to participate came from Vanessa-Mae herself; she asked about the possibility to participate under the flag of Thailand.

Whether this new information points towards Vanessa-Mae as mastermind of this qualification issue, remains unclear of course, but we can wonder, if not on behalf of the Thai Olympic Committee, who else could be responsible for inciting the fraud.

On the other hand, it could very well be possible that this whole issue is a matter of local corruption and that the qualification of Vanessa-Mae was only a secondary consequence.

In such a case, Vanessa-Mae has nothing to do with it. Let's hope that the matter will be cleared as such. I would find it devastating if it would come out that Vanessa-Mae is to be blamed for this.

It would be wise if Vanessa-Mae would speak out on the issue.

See also http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow ... story.html for this story.