The world famous violinist Vanessa Mae has qualified to race in the slalom at the coming Sochi Winter Olympics, representing Thailand.
35 year-old Mae, reported to have been a keen skier since childhood, is British but her natural father is from Thailand. She will become the first person to downhill ski race for the country, which has no ski resorts, just a few small indoor snow centres.
Mae, who will compete using her father’s surname, as Vanessa Vanakorn, competed in four separate races in Slovenia at the weekend in order to qualify for Sochi.
IOC rules allow nations which have no competitors ranked in the world top 500 in a sport to compete if they can satisfy secondary criteria – scoring an average of 140 points or fewer over five officially recognised races – which is what Vanessa Mae has just managed to achieve.
The global superstar of classical music is now also ranked 3,166st in the world in giant slalom.