Vanessa May Olympics. “A crazy old woman who only cares about getting to the finish line”
Roman Moon is about the scandal that erupted around Vanessa May's performance at the Sochi Olympics.
Vanessa Mae still loves music, but she likes skiing more. “I stopped enjoying my musical career a long time ago. Endless trips, the constant need to promote themselves,” May admitted in an interview with the Telegraph. It was published in the summer of 2010, a few weeks after the famous violinist announced that she wanted to enter the Sochi Olympics. Mei was going to compete in giant slalom, a difficult ski discipline.
Mae learned to ski before she could play the violin. She says that the sport was the reason for her break with her mother. Pamela May-Nicholson has been involved in her daughter's career for more than ten years. Even when Vanessa was a child, her mother forbade her to ride a horse, fearing that the girl might damage her precious hands. But when Pamela tried to separate the child from the skis (on which she herself put Vanessa), the girl became stubborn. “I asked my mother why she agreed when I was offered to land on an icy lake on a paraglider before one of the concerts. She said: “Vanessa, if you crashed, you would die in the name of art. People would respect you. An obituary would have been more flattering,” May recalls. They haven't spoken in almost 15 years.
Mei hoped to get to the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, but failed to agree with the Thai Olympic Committee. According to the most common version, she was then told that if she wanted to play for Thailand at the Games, she would have to give up her British citizenship. She was not ready for this, May could not compete in the UK team either. I had to wait another 12 years for my debut at the Olympics. On the eve of the Sochi Games, the Thai committee turned out to be more accommodating.
Olympic games 2014
To go to the Olympics in Russia, May had to either get into the top 500 of the world rankings (unrealistic), or score 140 points or less (the lower the score, the better) for performances in five International Federation tournaments ski types sports (FIS).
She has achieved desired result a month before the start of the Olympics, having scored the necessary points in Slovenia. These races were organized by May's management and the Thai Olympic Committee, but at that time FIS did not suspect anything.
At the Sochi Games, Mei competed under the name Vanessa Vanakorn (the surname of her Thai father) and took the last 67th place. She was 50.1 seconds behind champion Tina Maze, but received much more media attention. There are almost no photo galleries of Maze's victory on the Internet. Almost all sports media on the planet collected photo galleries from the last Mei who arrived. Star musician at the age of 35 will make his debut on Olympic Games Oh. Is it possible to pass by such a plot?
After the race, Mei said she knew she would come last and her goal at the Games was to have a good time, improve her skating and help the local animals. In parting, the 35-year-old athlete added: "I will prepare for my second Olympics - Sochi delighted me."
Deception
But May will not have a second Olympics. The other day FIS announced that the Slovenian competition, thanks to which it qualified in Sochi, was a fake.
The investigation of the disciplinary commission revealed a huge number of violations. One of the participants fell during the race and still ended up in second place in the final protocol. At least one athlete started outside the automatic gates, which were subsequently manually opened by the competition judge. Some of the declared skiers did not actually participate at all, several athletes who did not reach the finish line drew the time in the final protocol.
Verdict: May's qualification for the Sochi Olympics is the result of numerous falsifications. Mei is suspended for four years. The FIS also punished five organizers of the tournament, including for the fact that the competition was held in inappropriate weather conditions.
"Humiliating news for a violinist who has sold more than 8 million albums," the FIS Independent responded to the report. May has not yet issued an official statement, and she has time to file an appeal. But her dream somehow came true, and does it matter to her what people will now think about her performance?
“The best skiers in the world and I,” the star laughed, commenting on her result in Sochi. “A crazy old woman who only cares about getting to the finish line.”
Photo: RIA Novosti / Dmitry Korobeinikov; Fotobank/Getty Images/Alexander Hassenstein
There are two passions in Vanessa Mae's life - music and ... skiing. The star violinist has been involved in this sport since childhood, and finally, she qualified for the Olympic Games. Although at first her mother wanted to ban this hobby.
In general, this news should not be surprising: Vanessa Mae will perform at the Winter Olympics in Sochi in slalom and giant slalom. Mei, 35, started skiing at the age of four, a year before she first held a violin.
However, getting a violin lesson in London is much easier than finding a ski track. So Vanessa-Mae Vanakorn Nicholson first became a world-famous musician and one of the highest paid artists in the UK. And only now, in addition to this, she is a participant in the Olympic Games.
Although official results yet unknown, May's mentor is full of confidence: "At the weekend during the race in Slovenia, she finally qualified," Giles Holland said in an interview with the BBC. “Moments determined everything, but she did it anyway - and this is the most important thing.” And Tassanai Mukkawichit, head of public relations for the NOC of Thailand, said gleefully, “We received confirmation by phone. As soon as we receive an official confirmation letter, we will announce it.”
Thus, Mei will become the second representative of Thailand at the Winter Olympic Games after Prawat Nagwahara, who took part in the multi-kilometer ski race in Salt Lake City in 2002 and in Turin in 2006.
Since Thai skiers are not in the top 500, the country is allowed to enter one male and one female athlete each if they score no more than 140 points in four official races during the Olympic winter. This indicator consists of the level of difficulty of the route and the time it takes to pass. According to the International Ski Federation, May managed to meet this qualifying standard during the competition in Kravets, Slovenia, where she competed under the name of her father (Vanakorn).
Vanessa May has been chasing her sports dream since 2009, and especially for this she moved from London to Zermatt, Switzerland. In 2010, the world famous violinist voiced her ambitions. Then she said in an interview with the British Telegraph: "Music has been my passion all my life, and skiing has been my hobby for life."
Already with three years the daughter of the Thai Vorapong Vanakorn and the Chinese pianist Pamela Soi Lan Tang received piano lessons, and two years later, the violin was in her hands for the first time - again at the insistence of an ambitious and authoritarian mother. At 8, she was the youngest student at the Beijing Central Conservatory, at 13 she became the youngest soloist to record Beethoven concertos, and throughout her career, she has sold more than 10 million records.
Mother wanted to stop her from doing skiing
But since 2007, not a single Vanessa May album has appeared, and for a year now she has not given concerts. Her former life, as she stated in a 2010 interview with the Telegraph, turned into a rat race, she became a burden to her. A year later, there was a separation from his mother as a manager. That gap was connected, among other things, with her daughter's passion for skiing: her mother did not understand this hobby and wanted to ban this activity, because she considered the risk of injury too great.
"Of course there is a risk of injury, but life is short and you have to do what makes you happy," Vanessa Mae said in an interview with the BBC. Some time ago, she actually broke her elbow while working out, but despite this, she did not feel fear for her musical career: "I was more worried about the scar after the operation," she said.
Since she set herself the goal of participating in the Olympic Games, every day at 5.30 in the morning she is already on the track. But no matter how much she trains, she is unlikely to ever have a chance to high places: "Even entering the top 100 is unrealistic," Mei soberly assesses her strength. Also, a place in the UK team would be an unattainable goal, therefore, she will play for her father's team, since she has a Thai passport. “I would like to participate in the Olympics with the Thai team because this is a part of my life that I have never committed myself to before: being Thai.”
Well, after Sochi, May wants to devote himself to his first career again: “The Olympics are great, but the most beautiful thing for me is to stand on stage and play the violin.”
Translation: Ilya Koval
July 13, 2014, 19:03Childhood dream
The history of the Winter Olympics in Sochi was replenished with a scandal. As it turned out, one of the participants, perhaps, got into the competition not thanks to sports merit, but with the help of a real scam.
It is not about anyone, but about the famous English violinist Vanessa May.
Not all fans of her musical talent knew about her passion for skiing. Meanwhile, Vanessa has been involved in this sport since she was four years old. Already in adulthood, Mrs. Mei decided to embrace the immensity and add sports glory to her success in music.
No, Vanessa Mae was not going to become a champion, her dream was just to compete at the Olympics.
The violinist planned to realize her dream under the flag of Thailand, since Vanessa May's father is Thai.
Since alpine skiing is not developed in Thailand, Ms. Mei was not expected to have any rivals. However, there were difficulties of a different kind. Before the 2002 Olympics, Vanessa Mae's application was rejected by the Thai authorities, demanding that she renounce British citizenship.
The violinist made a new attempt in 2010, and this time she was treated more favorably - she received the right to represent Thailand under her paternal surname Vanakorn.
Vanessa Mae on XXII winter Olympic Games in Sochi. year 2014.
Last minute trip
The joy, however, was premature. The fact is that, according to the rules of the International Ski Federation, in order to compete at the Olympics, you must obtain an Olympic license by typing a certain amount of points in the World Cup.
Such a rule was adopted so that outright freaks or, given the sport, individuals with a craving for public suicide, did not leak into the Games.
In 2013, Vanessa May tried to fulfill the conditions by performing at tournaments in Australia and New Zealand, but the result was a failure - the violinist was disqualified in the first attempt.
There was less and less time left before the Olympics, and many decided that Vanessa's dream would never come true.
However, in January 2014, at the World Cup stage in Slovenia, Vanessa May-Vanakorn unexpectedly fulfilled the Olympic standard and received the right to travel to Sochi!
Naturally, the famous violinist was watched with genuine interest at the Games.
As a result, the Thai skier Vanessa Vanakorn, speaking in the giant slalom, took the last, 67th place. True, Vanessa finished in both attempts, while more than twenty athletes did not reach the finish line. At the same time, she lost more than 50 seconds to the winner, which by the standards of skiing is not even an eternity, but something more.
Nevertheless, Ms. Mei was pleased with herself and even announced her desire to speak at the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang.
Vanessa Vanakorn on the giant slalom course in the first run in the alpine skiing competition at the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi. year 2014.
Exposure session followed by disqualification
Perhaps it would have happened that way, but, as it turned out, representatives of the Slovenian Ski Federation also watched the success of the violinist-alpine skier in Sochi.
It was just the time shown by Vanessa May in Sochi that alarmed the officials - it did not even fit into the Olympic standard, which she completed at the Slovenian stage of the World Cup.
The initiated investigation led to disappointing conclusions - the famous violinist fulfilled her dream thanks to falsification.
It turned out that the result for getting into Sochi was ensured by the efforts of the competition director Borut Hrobat, chief referee Vlado Makutz, timekeepers Matjaz Goltec and Tugo Marincek acting at the request of a Thai firm that wanted to help Ms May.
Now each of the four involved in the conspiracy received four years of disqualification.
As for Vanessa May herself, the incident is unlikely to affect her musical career. But the skier Vanessa Vanakorn, most likely, will not have a second Olympics. International Olympic Committee does not approve of cheating.
Tuesday, February 18 famous violinist Vanessa Mae will make her debut at the Sochi Olympics.
The newly-minted athlete took part in the giant slalom among skiers. In the first run, she finished 74th in a row.
I am already happy that I was able to overcome the entire distance from start to finish and did not get lost. The experience that I got from participating in the Olympics is invaluable, - the violinist admitted.
The performer performed for Thailand under the name of her father - Vanakorn.
The second attempt took place a little later, not the 30 best athletes were admitted to it, as at the World Cup stages, but all the participants who reached the finish line on the first track
As a result, the Slovenian skier Tina Maze was the first to arrive. She became a double Olympic champion Sochi. The result of the winner is 2:36.87.
Anna Fenninger (+0.07) from Austria took the second place in the sum of two races, and the German Victoria Resensburg (+0.27) took the third place.
The only Russian woman in this form - Maria Bedareva - was 40th after the first attempt, and in the final protocol she is listed as "not finished".
And here Vanessa May showed worst result among all participants, but this did not upset either her or her fans. She left the track in a great mood and to thunderous applause.
If we talk about the technique of Vanessa, who has been skiing since the age of 4, she descended very confidently, better than most dummies. She has correct stance with an angular position, a competent trajectory of the route. She's just going way too slow. At least in comparison with the leaders who rush like mad.
Mei has previously said that she was eligible to play for the 2014 Olympics for Great Britain, because after her parents divorced, she left with her mother to live in the United Kingdom at the age of four. However, according to the violinist, she had little chance of breaking through there.
First musical success came to me at the age of 13. Then I played Tchaikovsky. And then I began to understand that my career is developing rapidly. Now this is a new challenge. And I hope to achieve the same results in sports career May said.
Meanwhile, according to the rules of the Olympics, countries not represented in the top 500 of the world ski rating, which does not include Thailand, have the right to declare one skier and one skier. At the same time, athletes must fulfill the conditions for the second level qualification, which May did at the competitions in Slovenia. At the Olympics in Sochi, the violinist will perform in the giant slalom.
HELP "KP"
Vanessa May- World famous violinist, composer. Known mainly for techno-arrangements of classical compositions. Performance style: techno-acoustic fusion or pop violin.
Chinese by mother, Thai by father. When Vanessa was 4 years old, her parents divorced and her mother took her daughter to the UK. After the move, the mother married the English lawyer Graham Nicholson.
She began studying music at the age of three, but then the main instrument was the piano. Later, my stepfather asked me to pick up the violin and accompany him.
Vanessa's first performance was at the age of nine. Played with the Philharmonic Orchestra when she was ten. Vanessa was the youngest student at the Royal College of Music.
The Olympic principle “the main thing is not victory, but participation” has lost its value over time. I think at least 70-80 percent of athletes going to the Olympics have hopes for the Games' rewards. But the finally named principle has not sunk into oblivion. For some, he is still alive. There are people for whom there is nothing more important than a sense of belonging to the greatest event, which is the Olympic Games. If the spirit of the holiday has settled in you, then you are still alive. We decided to tell about the athletes who go to Sochi not for medals, but for the sake of fulfilling their dream - to compete at the Olympics. They represent exotic winter views sports of the country, but in many respects it is thanks to their perseverance that the spirit and many principles live.
1. Vanessa Mae (alpine skiing, Thailand)
The famous British violinist set herself the task of performing at the Olympic Games in Sochi and achieved her goal. She has been skiing since the age of four, it is clear that not at a professional level. But when the question arose in what form to perform, the decision came by itself. Last years Vanessa trained in Switzerland, at one time with the Russian team in Australia. She will play for Thailand, her father's homeland, although she herself was born in Singapore. In order to qualify for the Games, Mei had to participate in 5 different starts, as well as score no more than 140 points. And although with difficulty, she coped with this task: her result was 137.36 (points were calculated based on occupied places and the time shown, while accruing on the inverse scale - the less, the better). Well, now it remains to wait for the competition of girls in the slalom. Most likely, we will see Mei in action only on February 21.
2. Hubertus von Hohenlohe (alpine skiing, Mexico)
Alpine skier from Mexico will take part in his sixth Olympics! He is already 55 years old, but Hubertus himself assures that he is healthy and full of strength! He made his first appearance at the Sarajevo Games in 1984. Von Hohenlohe is a remarkable person: he is an athlete, a businessman, a singer, and most importantly, he is a prince! Von Hohenlohe of blue blood, he is a descendant of the reigning dynasty of the former principality, which used to be located on the territory of modern Germany. At the last Games in Vancouver, von Hohenlohe used a costume with a national Mexican flavor, the so-called pistolero. This time he will appear as a Mexican musician - mariachi.
3. Johan Gutt Gonçalves (alpine skiing, East Timor)
19-year-old Johan Gutt is an Olympic debutant, but he has a big mission. After all, he became the first participant in the Olympic Games, representing East Timor. A small country in Southeast Asia has become a full member of the Olympic family. On the eve of the Olympics, Gutt told how he managed to get there: “I started skiing at the age of 12, I devoted all my time to this activity during the holidays. From that moment until the summer of 2013, I worked my way up to the status of a national team athlete. Once I gave my gloves to the president of our country. A small gift. I think these are the first ski gloves in East Timor. I hope the country will be proud of my performance in Sochi.”
Gutt trains in France, where he, in fact, was born. On December 29, at competitions in Serbia, he managed to qualify for the 2014 Olympics, dropping his rating below 140 points.
4. Angelica Morron di Silvestri ( ski race, Dominican Republic)
The 48-year-old skier qualified for the Games in Sochi, and for the first time at the Winter Olympics, the flag of the Dominican Republic will be among the others. Morrón will compete in the classic 10 km race with an interval start. She won't be in a hurry. Surely she will get one of the first starting numbers and will have time to get to the finish line until the strongest join the fight. By the way, her husband Gary will compete in a similar men's 15 km race. The couple now lives in New York, but they themselves are natives of Italy.
5. Bruno Banani (luge, Tonga)
In the world of sports, Tonga is best known for its rugby team, which is famous for its intimidating kailao dance. The island nation will for the first time send its representative to winter Olympics. Highest Achievement Banani - third place in the American Pacific championship three years ago. Banani is determined to overcome the qualification, but it is unlikely that he will be able to cope with the task.
The real name of the athlete is Fuahea Semi. He took up sleighing five years ago. Princess Pilolev Tupou of Tonga really wanted to see the athletes of her country at the Winter Olympics, and Semi decided to take up luge. He moved to Europe, changed his name. Managers of the company of the same name, a well-known German manufacturer of underwear and cosmetics, drew attention to Banani, and for several years he trained with the German national team.
The 17-year-old Filipino is a very gifted athlete. Figure skating he got involved at the age of nine. Now he trains in the US for two months a year. Last season, Martinez was 5th at the Junior World Championships and 16th at the major Four Continents Tournament. The American specialist John Nix is working with the boy.
7. Luke Henry Stein (alpine skiing, Zimbabwe)
Zimbabwe will be represented at the Winter Olympics for the first time. Luke Henry Stein is addicted to skiing as a child in Switzerland. But now he lives most of the time in the UK, although in winter he visits the best slopes in Europe. Fortunately, the NOC of Zimbabwe sponsors it.
