Lucas Pinheiro Braathen won the first-ever Winter Olympics medal for a South American country.
Born in Norway to a Brazilian mother, the skier now represents Brazil after a dispute with the Norwegian Ski Federation.
Braathen briefly retired from skiing at age 23 to pursue other interests like modeling and being a DJ.
He won the men’s giant slalom gold medal, finishing ahead of Swiss skiers Marco Odermatt and Loic Meillard.
BORMIO, Italy — Other skiers will tell you that Lucas Pinheiro Braathen is really a Norwegian athlete to them, since he trained in that system to become of the world’s best alpine skiers.
Pinheiro Braathen, on the other hand, wants you to know how he was a soccer player first. He tells you about visiting family in Brazil when he was little and becoming so entranced by one-named Brazilian soccer megastars that he even informed his father around age 6 that he wanted to become the world’s best on the pitch.
“Somehow, I’m a skier now,” said Pinheiro Braathen, looking down at a freshly awarded Olympic gold medal in his hand. “But at least I’m a champ.”
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This brief contradiction – with a men’s giant slalom gold-medalist from Norway talking about soccer with a Brazilian flag tied around him – represents the nature of this 25-year-old’s complicated journey to reach a historic moment in Olympic history.
The medal around his neck is the first ever awarded to a South American country during the Winter Olympics. Pinheiro Braathen’s mother is Brazilian, but he was born in Oslo and grew up in Norway.
It is important to Pinheiro Braathen, though, that he isn’t just a skier.
He’s a celebrity. He’s a model. He’s a DJ. He’s also a world-class skier, of course, but those other pursuits prompted him to announce his shock retirement from skiing at age 23. He’d been representing Norway. Before long, he was back in the sport and competing for Brazil.
“Daring to trust one’s self is something that is very universal,” Pinheiro Braathen said. “It’s very difficult, and it only gets more difficult with every day that passes, with social media and constant exposure to other peoples’ live sand perspectives and opinions. If it’s anything I hope that I can be the source of inspiration of today: You have to be who you are.”
Pinheiro Braathen’s initial retirement from skiing “came after weeks of rumored disputes with the Norwegian Ski Federation regarding image rights,” per Olympics.com.
“For him, that was super important,” said Norway’s Alte Lie McGarth, a childhood friend of Pinheiro Braathen who finished fifth in the giant slalom in Bormio. “He needed to have the space to do exactly what he needed. He wants to do a bunch of stuff outside of skiing, and now he has the space to be who he wants to be. I’m just proud of him for taking the choice.”
Despite the novelty of Brazil winning a medal in Alpine skiing, Pinheiro Braathen’s victory wasn’t some huge upset. He’s considered one of the world’s best slalom racers. In November, Pinheiro Braathen won a World Cup race in Finland, a first for Brazil, and he arrived at these Olympics No. 2 in the World Cup rankings for slalom and giant slalom.
Blessed with the leadoff spot for the first run in Bormio on Feb. 14, he threw down a 1:13.92 in the morning to open the event. Odermatt was the only competitor to get within 1.57 seconds of that time, and even he was nearly a second (0.95) behind Pinheiro Braathen.
“Conditions are always a factor. He got a clean course, and he took advantage of it,” said River Radamus, the United States’ top finisher at 17th. “That’s part of the game. But he didn’t make any mistakes.”
The gold medal was clearly Pinheiro Braathen’s to lose in the afternoon’s second run, and he didn’t lose it, posting a 2:25 total – when added to his first time – that was still 0.58 seconds ahead of silver-medalist Marco Odermatt of Switzerland. Another Swiss skier, Loic Meillard, took the bronze.
After Pinheiro Braathen’s second run, the Swiss tandem celebrated with him on the course, and that continued until after the medal ceremony.
“It’s funny to sit here today at this moment,” Pinheiro Braathen said, “because I cannot tell you how many comments I’ve read through from the day I started representing Brazil until becoming an Olympic champion today that have been along the lines of, ‘I have no idea what’s going on, but let’s go Brazil! Let’s go Lucas!
“I think it’s that unconditional love and support from the Brazilians, even though we’re still in the journey of introducing ski racing to Brazil, that I really brough with me today and allowed me to ski as fast as I did.”
