Vanessa-Mae celebrates last-place giant slalom finish: world-renowned violinist has also sold over 10 million albums

Weather conditions were appalling on the mountains above Sochi, with low-hanging cloud, fog and driving rain, and even the most experienced hands said the course was incredibly hard to ski due to the soft snow and condensation on goggles.

After finishing her first run with arms aloft – she was 74th out of 74 at that point – Mae said: "It was cool. I think it's hard to stay focused when you only have six months training like me, but I was just happy I didn't get lost, because this was my first two-gates and I thought I was going to go the wrong side, but I made it down."

The German favourite Maria Hoefl-Riesch, who won the event at the Vancouver Games four years ago and won gold in the super-combined in Sochi, was amused by Mae's physique before the race. "She's so small and fragile, you can't imagine how she can finish a run like that or even hit a gate," said Hoefl-Riesch, who had to pull out with a sore throat and did not compete.

...Mae, who grew up in Singapore and London, is one half of a two-person Thai team at Sochi, and only the third person to represent the country at a Winter Olympics. She got into the event by the skin of her teeth after competing in a number of qualifying events over the past months.

"You've got the elite skiers of the world and then you've got some mad old woman like me trying to make it down," she said. "I think it's great the Olympics is here, it gives you the chance to try something new later in life. If you do everything when you're young, you leave no fun until the end. I was lucky that the Olympics, you know, allow exotic nations, for people like me who have day jobs."

The family moved from Singapore to London when Vanessa was a child and, as a dutiful, obedient daughter, Vanessa followed her mother’s strict musical regime up until her late teens. She didn’t resent it overly; nor does she regret it now. But it was skiing or, rather, her mother’s command to banish it from her life, that led to the pair’s parting. When, at seven, Vanessa was banned from horse riding because her mother feared she would damage her hands, the little girl accepted it with good grace. But skiing was another matter.

“That I wouldn’t accept. I was always so obedient that I think my mother was shocked that I had developed a voice.” By way of explanation, she calmly recites a somewhat shocking scenario. “My mother was worried I’d hurt myself skiing and end my career. So I asked her why she was perfectly happy to have me paraglide in a harness on to a frozen lake in St Moritz to play. Her reply was tough to hear.”

Vanessa, all of 5 ft 3 ins, with her slight frame and hand-span hips, squares her shoulders and repeats her mother’s words in a flat monotone: “She said, 'Vanessa, if you crash and die doing that, at least you will have died for your art. You will be respected for dying for your art. And you will get a bigger obituary if you die for your music rather than skiing.’ Then she reminded me that she had invested many years in my career.”...

She steadfastly refuses to criticise her mother. “I respect her,” she says carefully. “Without her, I would never have achieved the success I have. And she was a wonderful musician herself. I am glad she was able to live her musical dreams through me. But, yes, there were things I look back on now and wonder if they couldn’t have been done differently. For example, I loved English and history at school. I would have loved to have done a degree in either. But my Mom said I didn’t have time for university. I was taken out of school at eight and at 15. I was never allowed to go to sleep-overs because Mom said if there was a fire, the parents would save their own children first.”

Vanessa is silent for a moment. “On the eve of my 21st birthday, I told her maybe we should have a professional break, she should stop being my manager and that would help our personal relationship. She took it badly. She could not separate them. For her, the daughter was the artiste and the artiste was the daughter. Of course, then lawyers got involved… We still don’t talk,” she says sadly. “But if I begged her to be part of my life again, well there would be emotional blackmail… My mother’s love was always conditional on my performance as a musician.