BORMIO, Italy, Feb 14: Like most young Brazilians, Lucas Pinheiro Braathen grew up wanting to emulate the country’s fabled soccer players and maybe one day even wear the famous yellow and green.

On Saturday he became the vast South American country’s latest and most unlikely sporting hero on a snowy slope in the Italian Alps, winning its first Winter Olympics gold medal and the first medal of any colour for a south American.

His stunning victory in the giant slalom was the latest landmark in a remarkable journey for the 25-year-old whose samba-style skiing has taken the winter sport by storm.

“I didn’t grow up as a skier, I grew up as a football player. That was my introduction to sport,” Norway-born Pinheiro Braathen told reporters after claiming victory by 0.58 seconds from Swiss favourite and defending champion Marco Odermatt.

“When I was visiting my family in Brazil, my first role models were Ronaldinho Gaucho, it was Ronaldo and those individuals that really changed the sports of football and sports in general, by daring to be who they are.

“That inspired me to even dare to go to my dad when I was around six or seven years old and tell him that I really want to become the best football player in the world.

“Now somehow I’m a skier, but at least I’m a champ.”

Pinheiro Braathen moved to live with his Brazilian mother Alessandra at the age of three after she and his Norwegian father Bjorn divorced but returned later to Norway where he rather reluctantly took up skiing.

After becoming part of Norway’s ski team and specialising in slalom he won the World Cup globe in the discipline in 2023 before stunning those in the sport by quitting, admitting in a recent documentary that skiing was making him miserable.

Everything changed though when he returned to the World Cup ranks in 2024, in Brazil’s colours with a mission to spread the Alpine sport way beyond its traditional heartlands.

“I decided to come back to ski racing because I found the possibility of doing it on my own terms,” he once said. “I made it clear that I’m coming back to make history and I’m coming back to be the best.”

In November, high in the Finnish Arctic Circle, he began to make good on that vow as he became the first Brazilian to win a World Cup ski race, his previous five coming as a Norwegian.

Despite sitting second in the World Cup overall standings behind only Odermatt, the slalom specialist had not returned to the top of the podium. Until Saturday.

Brazil’s president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was one of the first to congratulate Brazil’s new sporting hero, who even took a call from Italian slalom great Alberto Tomba.

The tears then flowed as the lively Brazilian anthem rang out for the first time ever at a Winter Games and he draped himself in the flag.

“The emotions I’m feeling right now are an internal sun inside of me that is shining so bright and towards so many people,” the ever-philosophical Pinheiro Braathen said. “It is the very light that brought me the power to be the fastest in the world today and to become an Olympic champion.

“I really hope it can shine on others, inspire them in a way that they dare to follow their own light, their own heart and to trust in who they are.”

Reflecting on what he admits has been a sometimes difficult and lonely path, he added: “If it wouldn’t have been for all those choices that I’ve made, if I took the conventional path, I would never be sat here today.”

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Lindsey Vonn, racing on a badly injured left knee, crashed early in the Olympic downhill on Sunday and was taken off the course by a helicopter after the 41-year-old American received medical attention on the snow for long, anguished minutes.

Vonn lost control over the opening traverse after cutting the line too tight and was spun around in the air. She was heard screaming out after the crash as she was surrounded by medical personnel before she was strapped to a gurney and flown away by a helicopter, possibly ending the skier’s storied career. Her condition was not immediately known, with the U.S. Ski Team saying simply she would be evaluated.

Breezy Johnson, Vonn’s teammate, won gold and became only the second American woman to win the Olympic downhill after Vonn did it 16 years ago. The 30-year-old Johnson held off Emma Aicher of Germany and Italy’s Sofia Goggia on a bittersweet day for Team USA.

Vonn had family in the stands, including her father, Alan Kildow, who stared down at the ground while his daughter was being treated after just 13 seconds on the course. Others in the crowd, including rapper Snoop Dogg, watched quietly as the star skier was finally taken off the course she knows so well and holds a record 12 World Cup wins.

Vonn’s crash was “tragic, but it’s ski racing,” said Johan Eliasch, president of the Internationl Ski and Snowboard Federation.

“I can only say thank you for what she has done for our sport,” he said, “because this race has been the talk of the games and it’s put our sport in the best possible light.”

All eyes had been on Vonn, the feel-good story heading into the Olympics. She had returned to elite ski racing last season after nearly six years, a remarkable decision given her age but she also had a partial titanium knee replacement in her right knee, too. Many wondered how she would fare as she sought a gold medal to join the one she won in the downhill at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

The four-time overall World Cup champion stunned everyone by being a contender almost immediately. She came to the Olympics as the leader in the World Cup downhill standings and was a gold-medal favorite before her crash in Switzerland nine days ago, when she suffered her latest knee injury. In addition to a ruptured ACL, she also had a bone bruise and meniscus damage.

Still, no one counted her out even then. In truth, she has skied through injuries for three decades at the top of the sport. In 2006, ahead of the Turin Olympics, Vonn took a bad fall during downhill training and went to the hospital. She competed less than 48 hours later, racing in all four events she’d planned, with a top result of seventh in the super-G.

“It’s definitely weird,” she said then, “going from the hospital bed to the start gate.”

Cortina has always had many treasured memories for Vonn beyond the record wins. She is called the queen of Cortina, and the Olympia delle Tofana is a course that had always suited Vonn. She tested out the knee twice in downill training runs over the past three days before the awful crash on Sunday in clear, sunny conditions.

“This would be the best comeback I’ve done so far,” Vonn said before the race. “Definitely the most dramatic.”

After the crash, the celebration for the medalists was held and fellow skiers thought about Vonn’s legacy.

“She has been my idol since I started watching ski racing,” said Kajsa Vickhoff Lie of Norway. “We still have a World Cup to do after Olympics … I wouldn’t be surprised if she suddenly shows up on the start gate, but the crash didn’t look good.”

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AP Olympics: