“The manager of Vanessa-Mae says the musician will be swapping her violin for skis to compete at the Winter Olympics,” reads an unsigned Monday (1/20) report at the Associated Press. “Giles Howard says the classical-pop violinist has qualified for the Thai team at the Sochi games. The International Ski Federation published rankings on Monday confirming Vanessa-Mae has met the qualifying criteria to compete at Sochi. The federation’s alpine media coordinator, Ana Jelusic, told Britain’s Press Association news agency that the 35-year-old musician ‘ticks all the boxes,’ having gained the required level of points in at least five slalom or giant slalom races. Singapore-born, London-raised Vanessa-Mae Vanakorn Nicholson competes as Vanessa Vanakorn, using the surname of her Thai father. A child prodigy who played violin from age 5, she shot to fame in 1995 with her debut album ‘Violin Player.’ ”
Posted January 21, 2014
