RE: THE RESULTS OF THE CAS APPEALS

[CarrollTowerCX]

Hello Boys and Girls,

Thanks to our friend Xanthippe, who furnished the following information to me. Here are the results of Vanessa-Mae's appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

As you can see that, what to me is of the utmost importance, is the fact that CAS found in both cases that Vanessa-Mae was not involved in either violation!

This makes me very happy !

CX

img278 by jrmclemore1, on Flickr

[zeta]

It's ok for me. Rijko can come back!

[justsomebody]

To see the complete CAS ruling, see:

http://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_u ... ernet_.pdf

Moreover, here are links to tow article commenting on the ruling:

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wir ... e-32205375

http://www.startribune.com/cas-explain- ... 311568071/

These two articles basically distill the following from the ruling:

In a detailed ruling published on Friday, the court said the 6,055 euros ($6,700) a local ski club was paid to organize four races days before the Olympic qualifying deadline was "not unreasonable."

The court did acknowledge that how the races were set up "should probably have raised some red flags."

One race in January 2014 was titled the "Thai National Junior Championships" even though 35-year-old Vanessa-Mae was the only racer from Thailand.

"It was obvious that the race exclusively served the purpose of allowing the Appellant to qualify for the Olympics at short notice," the three-lawyer judging panel wrote. "However, and perhaps surprisingly, the regulations permitted this.

"If anything has to be blamed in the case at hand, it is rather the system put in place by FIS to organize competitions and not the Appellant for having 'used' it for her own benefit."

and

Vanessa-Mae began earning FIS ranking points only three months before the Olympics, and needed a late surge to reach the qualifying standard.

The CAS panel said FIS fell short of proving that "every conceivable step was taken to twist and turn" the rules. If the qualifying races were rigged, it was not clear Vanessa-Mae was involved in cheating, "let alone the mastermind."

One higher-ranked retired skier who was paid to return and compete against Vanessa-Mae, lifting the ranking value of the race, was not called as a witness by FIS, the court noted.

Other witnesses gave different versions of claims that Vanessa-Mae was allowed by race organizers to start her run several seconds before official timing began.

Vanessa-Mae "is a world famous musician," the court ruling said. "The officials and all participants perhaps allowed themselves to be 'smitten' by this."

So basically, FIS rules were weak and Vanessa-Mae used this for her own personal benefits. She probable did not break rules but I guess she behaved as a spoiled rich girl who is used to get what she wants to have, and is willing to pay for it.

I consider this as a serious flaw on her character. Moreover, I have to agree with Benji as he stated in other topic that it is inconceivable that she was not aware of all this. She is the only one benefiting from the irregularities. That there was no convincing evidence for her personal involvement may be a juridical correct statement, that does not mean that she bears no moral responsibility.

It is quite understandable that FIS and other sport organizations aim to keep there sports clean from rich adventures who try to buy their way into the Olympics.

I pity Vanessa-Mae, she should not have done this. She should have accepted the reality that she is simple not a good enough skier to qualify for the Olympics applying the rules as they are meant to be.

Vanessa-Mae lost her innocence. It will never be as it was before. That is why I leave this forum to never return again.

There is nothing more to say!

Xanthippe

[zeta]

May be you are right, may be she knew something about it....but if so, everyone makes mistakes in his life and it has not to be blamed for life. Of course it is not a good stuff to read but I think she is not going to try it out over again.
I think you cannot be so radical.
Just forget it and let's enjoy music. My humble opinion.

[CarrollTowerCX]

Zeta,

You are right. I received this report in full from Xanthippe yesterday and have read it over several times.
I will make a comment on my interpretation later today.

It shows that Vanessa-Mae had nothing to do with this.

CX

[justsomebody]

May be you are right, may be she knew something about it....but if so, everyone makes mistakes in his life and it has not to be blamed for life. Of course it is not a good stuff to read but I think she is not going to try it out over again.
I think you cannot be so radical.
Just forget it and let's enjoy music. My humble opinion.

You are right, everyone is entitled to make mistakes in life, but in the end it all comes down to how you deal with your mistakes.

Vanessa-Mae doesn't seem to deal with her mistakes.

It is sad, apparently, that no one close to her did say to her: 'you should not do this', at least she did not listen to that advice. This happens very often that leading people get lost on reality and only listen to those who talk to please them, instead of taken criticism seriously. That she wanted to fulfill a life time dream, is not an excuse.

She discredited her own reputation, and worse, she violated the integrity of the sport.

I still admire her music, although I have hardly listen to it the past year because I am rediscovering so many other artists in my collection right now. I don't hate her because of this mistake, though her performance on the occasion of the 50th birthday of the brutal dictator Kadyrov of Chechnya seem to be in line with this one both reflecting a personality of a very selfish nature as if the world revolves around her.

Vanessa-Mae as a person now appears to be nothing special. I am simple not interested anymore in talking about her in this forum.

Benji mentioned in a post once that money corrupts, thought hat is often the case, I still believe that there are honest and honorable rich people. Sadly, Vanessa-Mae is not one of them.

[justsomebody]

Just on a side note, take notice of the fact that CAS Panel dismissed her second appeal against the FIS Council (cancellation of competitions) which confirms that she was ineligible to compete in the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games.

If Vanessa-Mae acted in good faith, then why did CAS confirm that these competitions were cancelled retroactively, given the IOC the option to remove her from the list of participants and skip her results. If Vanessa-Mae was in good faith then wouldn't it be reasonable to confirm her as eligible to start in the Olympics?