Brazil’s Lucas Pinheiro Braathen wins South America’s first-ever Winter Olympic gold in giant slalom

BORMIO – Brazil’s Lucas Pinheiro Braathen held his nerve to win the men’s Alpine skiing giant slalom in Bormio on Feb 14 for South America’s first-ever gold in the Winter Olympics.

The 25-year-old Norway-born skier, who was fastest in the first leg, was composure personified in the second to win in an aggregate time of 2min 25.00sec.

Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt, already a winner of team combined silver and super-G bronze, claimed a second silver, at 0.58sec behind, having been the only skier to have got within a second of the Brazilian in the opening run.

Odermatt’s teammate Loic Meillard, who partnered Odermatt in the combined, rounded out the podium, 1.17sec adrift of Braathen.

The victory for Braathen, who switched allegiance to his mother’s homeland of Brazil in 2024 after falling out with the Norwegian ski federation, meant a first-ever Winter Olympic medal of any colour for an athlete representing Latin America.

“I was skiing completely according to my intuition and my heart today, and that’s what enabled me to become an Olympic champ,” said Braathen, whose other interests include deejaying and fashion.

“It had nothing to do with the medal, it had nothing to do with the history that I had the potential of writing.

“I just wanted to ski as the person I am. I know I can be the best in the world, if I do that to the greatest extent.”

The best previous individual Winter Olympic result was Brazil’s Isabel Clark Ribeiro, who finished ninth in the snowboard cross in the 2006 Torino Games.

The best Alpine skiing result to date was that of Chile’s Thomas Grob, who finished 11th in the combined at the 1998 Nagano Games.

Braathen had represented Norway at Beijing 2022 but failed to finish in either giant slalom or slalom. He was born in Oslo to a Norwegian father and Brazilian mother, but spent time in South America as a child after his parents separated.

His father won custody and brought him back to Norway, but Braathen made yearly visits to Brazil from the age of 11. He was raised speaking both Norwegian and Portuguese.

Following a row with the Norwegian ski federation over sponsorship rights, Braathen stepped away from the World Cup circuit in the 2023-24 season before returning under the Brazilian flag in October 2024.

Racing for Brazil, Braathen has sealed nine World Cup podium finishes – five in the giant slalom, four in the slalom – and one victory, in the slalom in the Finnish resort of Levi in November.

On the Stelvio course in Bormio, experienced Austrian Marco Schwarz, a seven-time world championship medallist and 18th fastest in the first leg, led through until the top eight made appearances.

Norway’s Atle Lie McGrath was first in the start hut as racing moved to the business end of affairs.

In increasingly cold, snowy conditions, McGrath went into the lead.

Then came Austria’s Stefan Brennsteiner, a winner in the World Cup in Copper Mountain this season, but he failed to dislodge McGrath.

Vastly experienced Henrik Kristoffersen was next up. The 31-year-old who was 2019 world giant slalom champion, however, came in behind his teammate.

That left the top five racers, starting with France’s Leo Anguenot.

The Frenchman finished 0.16sec off McGrath, but Switzerland’s Thomas Tumler made no such mistake, the reigning world GS silver medallist racing into the lead.

Tumler could only look on as teammates Meillard and Odermatt followed before Braathen.

Meillard then scorched into the lead to ramp the pressure up on Odermatt and the Brazilian.

Odermatt laid down a crushing run to snatch the lead in some style, 0.59sec over Meillard.

Only Braathen was left in the start hut as Odermatt lapped up the applause from a large Swiss crowd.

The Brazilian kicked out of the gate and held his nerve, again mastering the mid-section flats.

After delivering the 11th fastest second run, which was enough for a comfortable victory on Feb 14, Braathen looked at the big screen in tearful disbelief in the finish area, thrusting one ski up in the air before falling into the welcoming arms of his father Bjorn as he topped a 69-strong field of skiers who completed both runs.

Singapore’s Games debutant Faiz Basha was among several who recorded a Did Not Finish in the first run. The 23-year-old, who is the Republic’s first snow sports athlete at the Winter Games, will next compete in the slalom event on Feb 16.

Over in the northern Italian town of Livigno, Australia’s Jakara Anthony won the gold medal in the women’s freestyle skiing dual moguls at the Winter Olympics, redeeming herself after a disappointing loss three days earlier in the single-format moguls.

The 27-year-old became the first Australian to earn two Winter Olympic gold medals when she overtook American Jaelin Kauf, who earned silver, with bronze going to fellow American Elizabeth Lemley.

Dual moguls is a new sport at the Olympics, pitting skiers together in a head-to-head elimination format in which two competitors race side-by-side through parallel bump fields. Speed counts, but so do turns and aerial manoeuvres.

On Feb 13, Matt Weston claimed Britain’s first medal at these Games by winning the men’s skeleton – the event from which Ukrainian Vladyslav Heraskevych had been disqualified for wearing a helmet commemorating his country’s athletes who were killed in the war with Russia.

On the same day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded a top state honour to Heraskevych.

“Medals are important for Ukraine and for you, but it seems to me that the most important thing is who you are,” he said while presenting the 27-year-old with the Order of Freedom on the sidelines of the annual Munich Security Conference.

Heraskevych told the president the award was “huge” and that the athletes depicted on the helmet “deserve it even more. Because of their sacrifice, we are able to compete in the Olympics”.

Heraskevych was banned before his race on Feb 12 as gestures of a political nature during competition are forbidden under the Olympic charter.

He then took his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which denied his appeal on Feb 13 as it had “found that freedom of expression is guaranteed at the Olympic Games, but not on the field of play, which is a sacred principle”. AFP, REUTERS