Alpine Skiing
How Lucas Pinheiro Braathen made Alpine history for Brazil
Lucas Pinheiro Braathen is living proof that you can be true to yourself while also achieving athletic greatness – get to know Brazil's first-ever FIS Alpine World Cup winner right here.
Lucas Pinheiro Braathen has always stood out. Born to a Norwegian father and a Brazilian mother, the alpine skier grew up between cultures, continents and expectations. He often describes himself as an outsider and it's easy to understand why. Before turning 22, he had moved homes 21 times, including several relocations across the Atlantic. Building long-term friendships or a fixed sense of belonging was difficult. His Brazilian-influenced openness and boldness sometimes clashed with Norway's more reserved culture.
Celebrated as one of alpine skiing's brightest rising stars after winning the Slalom World Cup title in 2023, Pinheiro Braathen stunned the sporting world when he announced his retirement later that same year. "I reached a point where I felt I had lost the reason why I began skiing," he explained. "I needed to step away. I needed time to be with myself, without a defined path or career to follow, before choosing my next direction."
About six months later, Pinheiro Braathen rediscovered that sense of purpose and announced his comeback. He returned to competitive skiing in the fall of 2024, but this time he chose to represent Brazil instead of Norway, embracing the heritage that shapes his identity: "It's the start of the biggest project of my life." And it's a project that continues apace, with the slalom star taking his first FIS World Cup win under the Brazilian flag in November 2025.
So who is Lucas Pinheiro Braathen? How did he become the first Brazilian skier to win an Alpine World Cup? The following story traces the key moments that define his career.
Pinheiro Braathen made a huge decision to ski under the Brazilian flag
© Johann Groder/Red Bull Content Pool
I want to leave behind a legacy, where I’m remembered as someone who always stayed true to who they were
01
From Oslo to Brazil: a multicultural start
Pinheiro Braathen was born in Oslo, Norway, to a Norwegian father and Brazillian mother. His parents separated when he was three and Pinheiro Braathen returned to Brazil with his mother, before his father got custody, bringing him back to Norway. He's never forgotten his South American roots though. I've been going back to Brazil once every year since I was 11 years old. It's half of me."
The influence of the country's culture is clear. His matronymic surname, Pinheiro, is Portuguese for pine tree and comes from his mother and his Brazillian heritage: while growing up he dreamed of playing football professionally and emulating one of his heroes, Ronaldinho.
When his father, a "so-called ski bum who moved from ski resort to ski resort whenever he got a new job," first introduced him to skiing, Pinheiro Braathen wasn't initially convinced. "I would come up with all types of lies," he recalls. "I told him 'I'm Brazilian, it's not in our blood. I will get sick if I'm exposed to these temperatures. My feet are made for beaches and not hard-shell boots'."
Growing up in Norway introduced Braathen to alpine ski racing
© Erich Spiess/Red Bull Content Pool
Representing his Brazilian roots on the slopes is a huge motivation though
© Erich Spiess/Red Bull Content Pool
But then one day, aged eight, he saw a group of ski-racers on the mountain and his life changed forever. "I was impressed by how fast they were going. I told my father I wanted to do that too. By the end of that winter, I loved training so much that I didn"t want to stop,” he told Red Bulletin in 2023.
While he'd found his new passion on the slopes, life off from them wasn't easy for Pinheiro Braathen. The constant upheaval involved with his father's job meant that he "never felt at home anywhere – not with one group of friends, not in one city, not in a single school. Almost as soon as we settled somewhere, we moved again."
At the time, he hated it and would try and fit in – “I would adopt the local accent, imitate their behaviour” – but by the time he reached secondary school he gave up trying: "I'd changed my personality, my accent, my interests so often only to then go on and lose them. So, I stopped and learned to be myself instead."
Now, he's extremely grateful for discovering his own personality at a young age and his experience has shaped him both on and off the slopes.
I want to change this sport by being myself. I don't want to have to rein in my personality just because the system expects me to
02
Chasing gates and dreams: the road to that World Cup win
Pinheiro Braathen's first comeback season yielded podiums, but no wins
© Erich Spiess/Red Bull Content Pool
After finding skiing aged eight, Pinheiro Braathen was soon hooked. But it wasn't solely a need for speed and adrenaline fix.
During a group training trip on a glacier one summer, he found for the first time in his life that he wasn't an outsider. "It brought together Norwegians from all different parts of the country. Everyone spoke in some strange dialect others didn't know. Suddenly it was cool to be different. That's why I fell in love with this sport. Not because of the blue and red gates," he says.
The following autumn, after a trip to the Hintertux Glacier, he hung up his football boots for good. "I did dream of becoming the best in the world, but I wanted to be the best in the world in a sport that allowed me to be myself."
By 2016, he was competing in the Norwegian National Junior Championships with his first win coming just one year later. His big breakthrough came in 2018, though, at the Norwegian national championships. The 18-year-old Pinheiro Braathen put in the performance of his life to finish second in the giant slalom, two 100ths of a second behind first and ahead of established names and future stars like Henrik Kristoffersen.
Early success on the World Cup stage put Pinheiro Braathen on the map
© Samo Vidic/Red Bull Content Pool
Four-time Olympic champion Kjetil André Aamodt spotted Pinheiro Braathen's performance and recommended that the national team start working with him as soon as possible. The rest, as they say, is history.
The same year, he made his World Cup debut, finishing 26th and scoring points at his first-ever event in Val d'Isere. Just 12 months later, he announced himself on the world stage by leading the field in the Kitzbühel slalom before eventually settling for fourth. He wouldn’t have to wait long for his first taste of victory – his gold in the GS at the 2020-21 season-opener was proof that he could back up his earlier promise.
An injury cut short the rest of the season, but he returned fighting fit for 2021–22, taking a win in the slalom in Wengen and adding three more podiums to finish fourth in slalom and giant slalom respectively, as well ninth in the overall.
Momentum was clearly building and the 2022–23 season cemented his place as one of the world's best alpine skiers, with three wins and four podiums clinching him the 2023 Slalom World Cup overall.
He now has a win to add to the podiums he has claimed for Brazil
© Erich Spiess/Red Bull Content Pool
Then, after his return from the brief hiatus, during the 2024–25 season he secured five World Cup podiums – but with one goal still missing: a victory.
Pinheiro Braathen didn't have much longer to wait to achieve that goal, however, with a victory duly arriving at the 2025/26 slalom season-opener in Levi, Finland; making him the first Brazilian skier to ever win an FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup race.
Reflecting on hearing the Brazilian anthem played to mark his win, he said: "This is a song that I've grown up hearing during the football games that inspired me to even start with sports and now to be able to be the reason why that song gets played in an occasion of success, representing the same nation where I grew my love for sports, it truly feels like a full circle moment. I am so very proud."
It truly feels like a full circle moment. I am so very proud
03
Style on and off the slopes
Pinheiro Braathen is as well-known for his exploits off the slopes as he is on them. A polymath who loves nothing more than travelling the world, DJing parties, going to friends' exhibitions and designing fashion pieces, he wears his personality firmly on his sleeve – and on his moon boot-clad feet.
The boots have become an iconic (and sometimes controversial) accessory on podiums across Europe, but he believes that they're linked to his roots. "They were a chance to make a statement and differentiate yourself in an environment where everyone dresses in the same conservative snowsuits," he said in an interview with 032c.com.
"When I started racing as a professional and won on an international level, I always made sure to jump up on the podium in my moon boots. They were a reminder of where I came from and a part of how I became the athlete winning races on a global stage."
A big fashion fan, Pinheiro Braathen always looks sharp away from the piste
© Erich Spiess/Red Bull Content Pool
He can often be found behind the decks at parties as well
© Philip Platzer/Red Bull Content Pool
He explained to Red Bulletin that skiing is "just one of many sources of happiness," with his other passions acting as a welcome break from the constant chasing of marginal gains, while also providing influence and inspiration.
"When the ski season is over, I have to be able to get as far away from my life as a professional sportsman as quickly as possible in order to come back motivated later. Every day I spend with friends who have nothing to do with skiing makes me a better skier. Every day I can be myself, dress femininely, surf, skate or go to an exhibition is an experience that also helps me in my sport."
04
The next chapter shines green, yellow and blue
After announcing his return to the sport under the flag of Brazil, Pinheiro Braathen set himself some lofty ambitions.
"Brazil has always had a major influence in shaping me to become the person and athlete that I am. Having the opportunity to represent 200 million Brazilians in World Cups, World Championships and Olympic Games, is a dream come true," he said. "I would hope that maybe me showing that I can put Brazil on a map in such a sport encourages people from countries that aren't well represented to dare to go for it. If I can just convince one kid to still go for it, that would make me the happiest person alive. It would feel extremely heartfelt if that were to be a Brazilian coming after me to take over a legacy like that.
Brazilian flag and cowboy boots on the podium - that's Braathen's style
© Erich Spiess/Red Bull Content Pool
My biggest goal is that I leave the sport with more diversity and more acceptance for difference
"I want to leave behind a legacy, where I’m remembered as someone who always stayed true to who they were. My biggest goal is that I leave the sport with more diversity and more acceptance for difference."
For Pinheiro Braathen, the painted nails he also sports are not a fashion statement or a passing trend. They're a declaration of identity. He' s spoken openly about wanting to change the culture of alpine skiing by showing up as his full, authentic self.
"I want to change this sport by being myself. I don't want to have to rein in my personality just because the system expects me to and I hope that way I can be an inspiration to someone," he explains. "A boy who wants to paint his nails might finally dare do it, just like I do. A boy who wants to dress in a feminine way may actually dare to do so. Or he takes a certain political stance, even if the people around him don't share his opinion. The sporting world is often very conservative, strict and confining. I'm not strong enough to rid us of these shackles on my own, but if I can serve as something of an inspiration to make the sport a little more tolerant, colourful and diverse, that would make me much happier than any sporting victory."
