Seeing athletes compete in London this week has only increased Vanessa-Mae’s desire to be a part of the Winter Olympics in two years, she told Omega House Times exclusively. ‘I have a taste for what it takes to be an athlete, and seeing the athletes at these Games win I realise that gold should be platinum because they put so much into it,’ she said.
Vanessa-Mae has been pursuing her twin loves of skiing and playing the violin from a tender age. Born in Singapore to a Thai father and a Chinese mother, she grew up in London and began skiing at just four.
‘Moving to London, I fell in love with snow. When I was 14 my musical career was taking off. I was obsessed by skiing but I put it to one side. I was on the treadmill of recording and promoting. When it slowed down in my twenties, I was able to give it more time and start skiing. I moved to Zermatt in 2009 and the idea of skiing for Thailand grew from that point.’
A musical prodigy by the time she was 13, Vanessa-Mae had already toured internationally and recorded three classical albums before helping kick-start a crossover of classical and contemporary music with her album The Violin Player.
In 2008 she was one of Britain’s Olympic torchbearers and performed at the Paralympics in Salt Lake City, 2002. Her goal in Sochi 2014 is to compete in the Super G and the Giant Slalom and she has dedicated the next two years to achieving it.
‘I have an Italian coach and he’s told me what it takes,’ she said. ‘My first races are early winter so we’ve just been doing a few gates over summer.’
Even a crash a year ago in which she broke her elbow has not deterred her. ‘Compared to most classical musicians I’m a breakneck risk-taking nutcase, but compared to professional skiers I’m not a hard-nosed racer. I have to learn to trust my technique, get the speed and go for the fall line.
‘But what drives me on is the idea of competing. To represent a country with no winter sports heritage is a very exciting prospect.’
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