The former wife of Beatles star Paul McCartney has been accused of lunging at a Paralympic official in a fit of rage and screaming insults after being forced to abandon her attempt to qualify for the British skiing team for next year's games.

Heather Mills' hopes of competing in Sochi ended Monday when the International Paralympic Committee ruled a new prosthetic she was using hadn't been ratified by the governing body. An application for a place in Britain's team was withdrawn.

IPC spokesman Craig Spence says the 45-year-old Mills confronted ski committee head Sylvana Mestre at a hotel in Austria, swore at her and said "you don't know who I am, I'm going to make your life miserable."

Mills faces being fined by the IPC.