Those watching the opening ceremony of Milano Cortina 2026 on TV will have noticed that solitary flag-bearer under the green and gold banner. Think of Brazil and it’s immediately Rio carnival, Copcabana and Ipanema beaches, certainly not alpine ski slopes. What is a Brazilian doing at the Winter Olympics?
Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, the Brazilian who, nomen omen, has a Pinheiro “pine” in his name, did more than amaze the world just by being there: he won the giant slalom, becoming the first Olympic gold medal in winter history with green-gold shades.
Lucas Pinheiro Braathen was actually known in the white circus, his story is more similar to that of Max Girardelli and Lara Colturi, than to that of the bobsledders of Jamaica.
More than an exotic adventure, his is a story of rupture with the original Federation.
As did Max Girardelli, legend of the eighties and nineties, among the strongest and most complete in history who, born Austrianalso due to a somewhat controlling father who was a coach and inclined to decide in his own way and inclined to impose himself, at a certain point he took the passport of Luxembourg, not exactly a land of slopes and mountains.
Something similar happened to Lara Colturi, who we saw carrying the flag of Albania at the Opening Ceremony at Milano Cortina 2026. Lara was born in Turin to coach Alessandro Colturi and Daniela Ceccarelli, Roman, Olympic gold medalist in Super-G in Salt Lake City 2002, she chose Albanian citizenship and began her career in FIS competitions with that flag in order to continue to be coached by her mother, managing her image independently.
It was precisely an image problem and an unauthorized photo shoot with a brand different from those with which the Norwegian Federation had contracts that caused the rift between Braathen, whose father is Norwegian and whose mother is Brazilian, and the Norwegian federation.
Awesome skier who ahad won the 2023 slalom specialty cup, returning from a serious injury, Lucas immediately after that success announced a sensational retirement: «In order to continue skiing within this system, I had to not only put aside my dreams, but also my joy of living. I am no longer willing to do it”, he said at the press conference where he presented himself with all his eccentricities, nail polish included, “Having said that, I am happy to announce that in the place where I won my very first World Cup race, I am retiring. I’m done.”
But Lucas had lived in Brazil as a child, his mother’s country, and from there Lucas retraced his steps and, before throwing away a talent at 23, he negotiated a return under that flag by imposing his own conditions: freedom of image management including the passion for fashion that makes him at home in Milan and eccentricity which distinguishes it and which it struggled to reconcile with a Federsci of great tradition and large numbers at winter level such as Norway. There are those who, due to his “exoticism” and his gasconades, liken him to Alberto Tomba, who moved him by writing him congratulations on the Olympic gold.
The change was sensational, the methods as well, but behind him, although there is not the staff of a large federation, there is a personal team, made up of first-rate specialists in alpine skiing: his longtime coach Peter Lederer; Mike Pircher, former coach of Marcel Hirscher, and the athletic trainer Kurt Kothauber, who in the past worked with Marco Odermatt.
The results have been seen. Lucas Pinheiro Braathen who two years ago risked becoming the greatest mid-alpine skiing potential is now the first Olympic champion in the history of Latin America.
