MILAN — In the 102 years since the Winter Olympics began, an athlete representing a South American country had never won a medal.
That changed Saturday.
Alpine skier Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, born in Oslo to a Brazilian mom and Norwegian dad, convincingly won the giant slalom in Bormio, Italy, to make South America's first Olympic medal a gold medal.
"I hope I can inspire some kids out there that, despite what they wear, despite how they look, despite where they come from, they can follow their own dreams and be who they really are," Pinheiro Braathen said. "Because that is the real source of happiness in life.”
And Brazil might not be done.
Nicole Rocha Silveira, who was born on the southern tip of Brazil and moved to Canada around age 7, is ranked ninth in the world in women’s skeleton and will finish the competition Saturday night in Cortina d'Ampezzo.
Silveira made three World Cup race podiums over the last two seasons and was fourth at the 2025 World Championships. The times from four runs (two each day) are combined to determine medalists.
In giant slalom, skiers take two runs, with their combined times determining the winner, and Pinheiro Braathen was in first after his first run. He secured his gold medal Saturday with a combined time of 2:25.00, 0.58 of a second ahead of Switzerland's Marco Odermatt, who won his second silver medal of these Games.
"I’m not even able to grasp reality, as I stand here right now," Pinheiro Braathen said after winning his first Olympic medal. "I am just trying to get some sort of emotion here and translate it into words, even though it’s absolutely impossible."
Pinheiro Braathen and Silveira each carried the Brazilian flag at different sites during the Opening Ceremony last week.
Though both learned their sport in the Northern Hemisphere, they each proudly wear the Brazilian colors.
Pinheiro Braathen was the world's top-ranked in slalom, then skiing for his native Norway, when he shockingly retired at age 23 — two days before the start of the 2023-24 season. In a tearful press conference, he hinted at a long-standing conflict with the Norwegian ski federation over athlete marketing rights.
Pinheiro Braathen booked a one-way ticket to Brazil, a country he visited annually as a kid. He got stranded on Ilhabela, an island outside São Paulo. Some time later, he decided he wanted to unretire and ski for Brazil, and received a release from the Norwegian federation.
“I fell in love with sports over there (playing soccer on the streets of São Paulo), so to be able to come full circle, to be able to represent them in the World Cup of a sport, it truly means a lot,” he said in 2024. “To be able to bring the dance to the snow is what I’m seeking to do.”
When Pinheiro Braathen became the first Brazilian skier to make an Alpine World Cup podium in 2024, he broke into a samba in the Colorado snow. When he won a World Cup last November, he screamed “Vamos Brazil!” into a finish area camera, beamed as the national anthem, "Himno Nacional Brasileiro," blared inside the Arctic Circle in Finland, draped the Brazilian flag around his neck.
“Norway taught me how to be an athlete, how to brave the cold,” Pinheiro Braathen said then. “Brazil taught me how to be myself.”
Silveira stands out in her sport, too. She races in skeleton — where athletes slide head-first down the same icy chutes as bobsledders and lugers.
