Brazil’s Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, heart, celebrates successful a gold medal for an alpine ski, males’s big slalom race, as silver medalist Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt, proper, and bronze medalist Switzerland’s Loic Meillard applaud, on the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Bormio, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026.
Rebecca Blackwell/AP
cover caption
toggle caption
Rebecca Blackwell/AP
BORMIO, Italy — There was dancing, loads of dancing, for Brazilian ski racer Lucas Pinheiro Braathen as he carried out samba steps again and again. To no actual music, both.
There have been feelings, too, particularly after they performed his nationwide anthem. And reflection, for figuring out what this second meant now and will imply later.
As soon as a racer for Norway, Pinheiro Braathen switched to Brazil, his mom’s residence nation, and with two highly effective runs Saturday to win the Olympic big slalom he earned the excellence of selecting up South America’s first medal at a Winter Video games.
“I’ve tried time and again to place phrases into what it’s that I am feeling,” Pinheiro Braathen mentioned. “But it surely’s merely unattainable.”
He gave his nation one more reason to rejoice even when it already simply so occurred to be Carnival season. The fun-loving, samba-dancing skier had the right helmet for the event, too, stenciling on the again “Vamos Dancar” — “Let’s Dance.”
He did a rhythmic quantity within the first run that gave him a 0.95-second edge.
With snow falling and fog settling in on the ultimate run, the 25-year-old Pinheiro Braathen remained cool and relaxed as he navigated his method via the technical Stelvio course. After seeing his place — No. 1 — he simply stared. When it lastly sank in, he fell to the snow earlier than beginning to scream.
He completed in a two-run mixed time of two minutes, 25 seconds to beat Swiss racer Marco Odermatt, the defending Olympic champion, by 0.58 seconds. Odermatt’s teammate, Loic Meillard, earned bronze.
“It is a second that is arduous to know, regardless that it is crystal clear that you’re formally the Olympic champion,” Pinheiro Braathen defined. “Regardless that I had such religion and I knew that this was written for me, it’s nonetheless so unbelievable to reside that dream turned actuality. I could not fairly grasp it.”
Pinheiro Braathen comes from a household the place his mom is Brazilian and his father is Norwegian. He began racing for Norway till abruptly retiring earlier than the 2023 season, solely to return a 12 months later representing Brazil.
He is already completed loads of firsts along with his new nation: First Brazilian Alpine racer to complete on a World Cup podium final 12 months and first World Cup win for the nation this season.
Now, he is the primary Olympian from the South American continent to deliver residence a winter medal.
“The feelings that I am feeling proper now could be an inside solar inside me that’s shining so, so shiny and towards so many individuals,” he mentioned. “I used to be snowboarding with my coronary heart, and once you ski the best way you’re, something is feasible. The one factor that issues to me is that I stay who I’m. I’m a Brazilian skier who grew to become an Olympic champion.”
That is why he obtained so choked up listening to his nation’s anthem on the rostrum. Brazil has taken a part of each version of the Winter Olympics since 1992. The nation’s finest consequence till Pinheiro Braathen’s gold medal was ninth place in girls’s snowboarding in 2006 with Isabel Clark.
Brazil’s Lucas Pinheiro Braathen speeds down the course, throughout an alpine ski, males’s big slalom race, on the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Bormio, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026.
John Locher/AP
cover caption
toggle caption
John Locher/AP
“Being the rationale that I get to listen to and share that music in a stadium in the midst of mountains, due to a Winter Olympic gold medal for these colours, I am past proud,” Pinheiro Braathen mentioned.
He gave a shoutout to the Norwegian Ski Federation as nicely.
“I haven’t got any hate or unhealthy emotions about what has occurred,” he mentioned. “I am simply grateful, as a result of it is our variations in our views which have compelled me to confront myself to observe my very own dream. And it was that coronary heart, and that power, that introduced me to the highest of the Olympics.”
It was one other medal for Odermatt on the Milan Cortina Video games. He additionally gained silver within the staff mixed occasion, the place he partnered with Meillard, and bronze within the super-G.
“Three medals,” Odermatt mentioned, “is superb.”
Odermatt was requested about seeing a Brazilian on high of the Olympic podium and its significance: “For me, it would not signify something. He did his complete schooling in Norway. He simply switched to Brazil now, so I do not care about this. However he is an incredible skier, and I’ve respect for him as an athlete.”
Atle Lie McGrath of Norway completed fifth. He has identified Pinheiro Braathen since they started racing collectively as children for his or her ski membership.
“We shared a pleasant hug over there,” mentioned McGrath, who wore a black armband in tribute to his late grandfather. “I am actually pleased with him.”
In Milan, Pinheiro Braathen’s followers, decked out in inexperienced and yellow, crowded into “Casa Brasil.” They cheered for the whole lot of his run, screaming and leaping to their ft as soon as he completed. The sound system blared “We Are The Champions” earlier than enjoying samba-infused songs for everybody to bop to.
For Pinheiro Braathen, it is arduous for him to think about how he will probably be perceived now that he is gained gold for Brazil. He is keen to search out out.
“I am unable to inform you what number of feedback I’ve learn via from the day I began representing Brazil till turning into an Olympic champion immediately that has been alongside the traces of, ‘I do not know of what is going on on, however let’s go Brazil. Let’s go Lucas,'” Pinheiro Braathen recounted. “I believe it is that unconditional love and help from the Brazilians, regardless that we’re nonetheless on this journey of introducing ski racing to Brazil, that I actually introduced with me immediately and allowed me to ski as quick as I did.”
