Olympic Spirit 6 - Grand Slalom W

The Olympics are the chance for all of us who stayed indoors reading books and practicing piano or violin to see what everyone ELSE was practicing. Unless you’re Britain’s Vanessa Mae. She is a violin virtuoso. She is a global star. She has sold 10 million albums. She’s a millionaire. And today, she competed in the Giant Slalom in Sochi.

Vanessa-Mae Vanakorn Nicholson (she competes as Vanessa Vanakorn) was born in Singapore to a Chinese mother and a Thai father. She was raised in Great Britain as a British citizen with a Thai passport. She has always been an avid skier, and took a year off from music to compete enough to earn a place in the Olympics. Olympic rules allow countries with no athlete in the top 500 to send one male and one female athlete if they meet certain criteria — Vanessa-Mae had to produce an average of 140 points or fewer over five recognised races. She is the lowest-ranked skier in the field, at 2,253rd, but she is only Thailand’s second-ever representative at the Winter Olympics.

"If I end up last I have no problem with that," she told the BBC. "I know that I spent six months training. Other athletes have been training since they were six years old so that's something you can't compare… I just want to have a good time. I want to have two fun runs that I can say I'll remember for the rest of my life… To be here at the Olympics is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I feel so blessed to have this chance to go from artist to athlete, to just experience this is surreal almost.”
It was a rain-slicked course, and a wet and challenging day. Vanakorn did finish dead-last this morning, a full 50 seconds off the winning time, and _ as promised — is quite pleased with the experience. However, out of 90 competitors, she was 67th — she took the safe and slow route down, but several others who skied aggressively went off the track and earned a DNF.

She told The Telegraph after the race, "You can insure yourself up to your eyeballs, but if you don't take risks, what's the point? You have to enjoy life.”

The winner of the race, Tina Maze, earned her second Gold of the Sochi games (this time without a tie). Maze is a pianist who often plays on the road, and released a pop single in 2012 that was very successful in Slovenia. Giant Slalom, the most musical of the Alpine sports...