Lucas Pinheiro Braathen won gold in the giant slalom in Milan-Cortina, becoming the first athlete to win a medal at the Winter Olympic Games for Brazil. And on top of that, a gold medal.
Lucas completed the two runs in 2 minutes and 25 seconds (1’13″92 in the first and 1’11″08 in the second), finishing 58 hundredths of a second ahead of Swiss athlete Marco Odermatt (considered the favorite to win this category), who won the silver medal. Loïc Meillard, also from Switzerland, won the bronze medal.
The Brazilian athlete was the first to run, as determined by the draw the previous day, setting a time that none of the 81 athletes managed to surpass in the first run, leaving him with room to manage the advantage in the second round, finishing 11th, enough to secure the gold, on the Bormio track in Italy.
Born in Oslo to a Brazilian mother and a Norwegian father, 25-year-old Lucas Pinheiro Braathen began representing Brazil in 2024. In 2023, he became world slalom champion for Norway. And in 2025, he won again, this time representing Brazil. The Olympic athlete arrived in Milan-Cortina with a streak of ten consecutive top-five finishes.
In 102 years and 26 editions of the Winter Olympic Games, Brazil has won its first medal in winter sports. Lucas’s gold medal places Brazil on a select list of Southern Hemisphere countries that have won winter medals. Australia (1994, 2002) and New Zealand (1992, 2018 and 2022) are the other two Southern Hemisphere countries to have won medals.
Lucas Pinheiro Braathen will compete again in this 2026 edition, this time in the slalom, next Monday, thus having another chance to win another Olympic medal.