Violinist's pre-Sochi Olympic results rigged, claims Slovenia ski body

From The Guardian UK:

he Slovenian Ski Association said on Friday it had 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 state when the races were held."

Zurej said Vanessa-Mae might not have known about the violations at the time.

The 35-year-old, who was born in Singapore and raised in Britain, said after finishing the race in Sochi that she was thrilled to have taken part, although she clocked the two runs in a total of three minutes, 26.97 seconds – 50.1 seconds slower than gold medalist Tina Maze of Slovenia.

I'm not surprised by this. I've had a feeling for the past couple of Olympics that persons are being admitted that have no business being at the Olympic games. I have seen in the summer games, where people get lapped on the longer distance races or come in waaay waaaay after the third place winner has come in. I have asked whether there is some kind of standard in terms of time these entrants have to meet. I understand that the countries want to be shown, but I think that there should be minimal qualification times for the Olympics.

For example, For the 5 or 10 kilometer races. The cut off time should be the time of the person that finished on the same lap as the winner. Anyone trying to enter the Olympics who cannot meet that time should not be allowed.

Similar things should be in place for the other timed sports. a 10 second gap is HUGE in most of these events. No one who's 50 seconds out should even be admitted.

Similarly, that woman, the Saudi who was in the Judo competition but had essentially no qualifications other than being a Muslim female should never have been allowed to participate. If a country needs to change it's culture to meet international sporting standards then that's what the country needs to do. The whole "feel good" nature of that admission was, in my opinion, an insult to the athletes. It would never be acceptable to put a green belt in the arena from any other nation, why should an exception be made in Saudi's case?

I know that would affect my beloved Jamaica bobsled team, but I'm going to be consistent. If Jamaica wants to do bobsledding then they should pay up for training in a country with ice and snow. Otherwise, may I suggest they get their bike on.