Maybe I was being cruel but on hearing the news of the latest scandal to blight the sport of skiing an image formed in the mind's eye of a splendidly dressed, perfectly manicured princess stamping her foot and demanding of her flunkies: "I wanna, wanna, wanna play at the Olympics."

"Of course Vanessa," flunky-in-chief would have replied. "If that's what you want now then we'll make sure it happens."

And so, as if by magic, it did . . . except that no wands or fairy dust were required, merely a means of persuading a few skiing officials to stage races which could be claimed as being of sufficient standard to allow someone with little or no aptitude for the sport to gain the necessary points to represent a country with little or no tradition in the sport.

In the inquiry which has taken place since violinist Vanessa Mae got to fulfil her Olympic dream by competing for Thailand in the giant slalom in Sochi, the International Skiing Federation (FIS) has concluded that the results of the races set up to allow her to "qualify" for the Winter Olympics had been manipulated.

Mae has consequently been banned from skiing for four years, which seems severe given that it is twice the length of the standard ban given to drug offenders these days, but, as an FIS official has admitted, it is hardly going to bother her since she got her way.

Besides, even were she not going to be in her forties by the time the next Winter Olympics comes around, she was hardly likely to improve on her last-place finish.

Even the suggestions that she may suffer mild embarrassment at the findings seem fanciful since, as the privileged and pampered invariably do when others raise questions about the unfairness of their access to whatever they want, she can now dismiss critics as being jealous of her Olympian status.

However, the greatest embarrassment is surely for the FIS itself given the ease with which her desires have been indulged.

Five officials have been banned from involvement in the sport for between one and two years, which seems extraordinarily lenient given that it was the manipulation of the results which seems to have been the greatest offence here. However, this must also be seen in the context of claims made earlier this year by an official from British Skiing's governing body about how ski racing is run.

During the Winter Olympics, Herald Sport revealed how Paddy Mortimer, performance director of British Ski and Snowboard (BSS), had sought to defend his organisation's controversial selection policy which resulted in Britain turning down five places at the Winter Olympics by claiming that FIS points are "blatantly fixed".

Once that got into the public domain Mortimer offered what was described as an unreserved apology for comments which he said were "not based on fact". His employers, meanwhile, distanced themselves from any suggestion that there was a problem with the system, stating: "British Ski & Snowboard strongly disagrees with any suggestion that there are issues with the Alpine FIS points scoring system."

Nine months on and we are left with much to ponder, since the findings of the FIS investigation into Mae seem to go some way towards bearing out Mortimer's original claim. The report indicates just how easy it seems to have been for the violinist to gain a place at the Olympics, in turn suggesting there is scope for serious abuse of the Alpine FIS scoring system.

Our coverage sparked something of a rebellion in British snowsport which appeared to be fended off by the incumbent authorities after Malcolm Erskine, the individual elected by members as chair of the alpine, speed and telmark committee on a ticket for change in the way things were run, was deemed to have been discredited by BSS officials.

Incensed by a refusal to publish the number of votes by which he had been elected, Erskine levelled accusations at the election invigilator which were deemed discriminatory. Erskine, a volunteer, admits he should not have done so but that has not, it seems, satisfied those who previously accepted their employee's apologies for how he justified denying young skiers the chance to compete.

Suffice to say there are those involved in skiing who believe theirs is yet another sport which, far from practising the "good governance" we keep hearing about from the powers-that-be, has serious problems and they are not yet ready to let this matter drop.

And Another Thing . . .

The president and vice president of Tennis Scotland resigned citing concerns about the possibility of cronyism and a lack of transparency in decision making within the sport.

A couple of weeks later Jamie Murray, a member of the first family of Scottish tennis, launched a withering criticism of how the governing body runs its business.

The powers-that-be have, however, declared that they are happy that "good governance" is in place.

Of course they are!