Four Slovenian ski officials were suspended on Friday for allegedly rigging the results of pop violinist Vanessa-Mae to help her qualify for the Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Competing in Sochi for Thailand as Vanessa Vanakorn, using the surname of her Thai father, she finished a distant last among the 67 racers who completed the two runs in the Olympic giant slalom.
To earn enough points to be eligible for the games in February, she had to compete in official races in Sweden, Norway, Slovenia and Switzerland.
The Slovenian Ski Association said Friday it found evidence indicating that the races it hosted in January were "fixed at the behest of Thai ski officials to meet her qualifying criteria for Sochi."
The Slovenian association president, Jurij Zurej, said the suspected irregularities included falsification of times and rankings.
"The starting list included a person who did not even compete, a racer who fell was registered as finishing high in the standings," Zurej said.
"In addition, the dates of the competitions did not match the actual days when the races were held."
Zurej said that Vanessa-Mae might not have known about the violations at the time.
According to the reports sent to FIS, Vanessa-Mae finished 10th, 9th, 7th and 6th in the four consecutive races in Slovenia, which mainly involved Slovenian junior competitors.
FIS president Gian Franco Kasper said he was "disappointed" by the alleged cheating but that no action could be taken until the Slovenian association completes its inquiry.
The 35-year-old Vanessa-Mae, who was born in Singapore and raised in Britain, clocked her two Olympic runs in a total of 3 minutes, 26.97 seconds - 50.1 seconds slower than gold medallist Tina Maze of Slovenia.
She later likened the Olympics to "the greatest show on earth."
"To just share the same snow, to be able to slide down the same snow that the elite skiers carve down is just an honour and a privilege," she said at the time.
Vanessa-Mae also competed in races in Sweden, Norway and Italy before the Sochi Games but no cheating was reported from those events.
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