Violinist Vanessa Mae has said that "it was great" to make her Winter Olympics debut in this morning's giant slalom event.
The musician, who is competing for Thailand, sat almost 27 seconds behind leader Tina Maze at the end of the first run.
"It was great. I said to myself 'if I qualify I'm going to set a goal for myself'. I made a pledge that I would make a big donation to charity because I support animal charities," BT Sport quotes the 35-year-old as saying.
"My main focus for being here was to really have a good time, to improve my speed in a very, very short amount of time and to help some animals out here.
"You have to take risks in life at the end of the day. You can insure yourself up to your eyeballs, but if you're enjoying life, what's the problem?"
Mae is just the third person to represent Thailand at a Winter Games.
