BORMIO, Italy — Brazil boasts beaches and sunshine, not ski slopes and snow. Its single-name athletic legends tend to play soccer, the country’s defining sport.
So when Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, an exuberant alpine skier, won gold for Brazil in the men’s giant slalom race Saturday, he not only made history as the first medal winner from South America at a Winter Olympics, but also rewrote the definition of what a Brazilian athlete could be.
The 2026 Games in northern Italy have delivered emotional firsts over the past two days for countries that are less than winter sports powerhouses. Figure skater Mikhail Shaidorov, 21, of Kazakhstan, finished first in the men’s competition Friday, securing in dramatic fashion his country’s first gold medal in the sport over favorites from the United States and Japan.
Pinheiro Braathen, 25, completed his victory run Saturday and collapsed onto the snow at the bottom of the ski course in the town of Bormio, quieting an army of spectators from neighboring Switzerland, whose skiers have otherwise dominated the men’s downhill races. He danced and shed tears as the outnumbered but boisterous Brazil fans waved flags and cheered.
“I don’t know how to put into words what I’m feeling right now,” Pinheiro Braathen told Brazilian television network Globo moments after his win. “To everyone watching in Brazil, following me and cheering for me, I hope this can be a source of inspiration for the next generation of children. Nothing is impossible. It doesn’t matter where you come from, your clothes or the color of your skin.”
Shaidorov’s triumph in figure skating the night before was not quite as historic — Kazakhstan won a Winter Games gold medal 32 years ago in cross-country skiing — but perhaps just as unexpected. He skated a flawless program and then watched as more celebrated competitors, including American Ilia Malinin, stumbled under the Olympic spotlight.
Still, few victories at these Games have been as momentous as the one for Brazil, a country so defined by its achievement in a single sport — soccer — that many fans who turned out to cheer on Pinheiro Braathen wore the canary yellow Brazilian soccer jersey.
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said on the social platform X that Pinheiro Braathen would “forever be etched into the history of Brazilian sport.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
