Alpine Skiing
For Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, the sky is the limit
Lucas Pinheiro Braathen is living proof that you can be true to yourself while also achieving athletic greatness – get to know the alpine skier right here.
Lucas Pinheiro Braathen has always stood out from the crowd. Born to a Norwegian father and Brazilian mother, the 23-year-old says that he has always been an outsider. It’s not surprising – his nomadic upbringing saw him move home (including across the Atlantic Ocean) 21 times before his 22nd birthday, making it hard to put down roots and build friendships. He also found that his South American-influenced mindset can be polarising in Norway’s more conservative and closed culture.
But he wouldn’t have it any other way – in fact, he believes his personality and determination to do things his way, rather than conforming to norms and traditions, has helped to propel him to the top of alpine skiing. There’s evidence to show he’s right, too. To date, he has recorded five World Cup wins and 12 podiums in a whirlwind four seasons since making his debut, while Pinheiro Braathen’s best season – 2022/23 – saw him crowned the 2023 Slalom World Cup Champion.
In true Pinheiro Braathen fashion, where he was following his “philosophy of wanting to pursue what makes me the happiest”, he retired from professional sport on the eve of the 2023/24 season, citing that he hadn’t been happy for at least six months. “I was left in a situation where I felt that I lost the reason as to why I started with skiing. If you’re not doing it for the same reason that you started with, then I didn’t find it natural to continue. I needed to break away from the sport, I needed to spend time with myself and not think of a certain path or a career for once, before choosing what my next path would be.”
He has now decided what course his life will take, and it has some of his renowned South American flair – Pinheiro Braathen announcing that he will return for the 2024/25 season and race under the flag of Brazil, rather than Norway. “It’s the start of the biggest project of my life,” he said, where his targets to get back to the top in his sport. It’s clear that when Pinheiro Braathen sets his mind to something, he often achieves it.
I want to leave behind a legacy, where I’m remembered as someone who always stayed true to who they were
01
A multicultural start
Pinheiro Braathen was born in Oslo, Norway, to a Norweigan 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 middle name, ‘Pinheiro’ is Portuguese for pine tree, and is in tribute to 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. 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 are not made for hard-shell boots.”
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 had changed my personality, my accent, my interests so often only to then go on and lose them. So I stopped, and learnt 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.
Lucas Pinheiro Braathen's early experiences shaped him
© Stefan Voitl / Red Bull Content Pool
02
Path to the start gate
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 form 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.”
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 Norweigan National Junior Championships, 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 hundredths of a second off of first, and ahead of established names like Henrik Kristoffersen.
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 – 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 Giant Slalom at the 2020-21 season opener proof that he could back up his earlier promise.
An injury cut short the rest of the season, but he returned fighting fit for 2022/23, taking a win in the Slalom in Wengen and three more podiums to finish 4th in Slalom and Giant Slalom respectively, and 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.
Although the 2023/24 season was ultimately curtailed by his retirement on the eve of the first race in Sölden, Austria, you can guarantee that this isn’t the last we’ll be seeing of Pinheiro Braathen on a Slalom or Giant Slalom podium.
Lucas Pinheiro Braathen wants to leave behind a legacy
© Fabio Piva / Red Bull Content Pool
03
Passion for fashion
Pinheiro Braathen is as well-known for his exploits off the slopes as he is on them. A polymath who loves nothing more than traveling 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-covered feet).
The shoes have become an iconic (and sometimes controversial) accessory on podiums across Europe, but he believes that they are 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.”
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
Overcoming the impossible
In the first of his five wins, Pinheiro Braathen managed to break the record for the largest jump between first and second runs to secure victory. After a disappointing 29th place in run one of the Slalom in Wengen, 2022, he put down a blistering second performance to come away with the win.
Although a world record at the time, it has since been broken by Daniel Yule, who went from 30th to 1st place during the Chamonix Slalom event.
Gliding through the red and blue gates
© Stefan Voitl / Red Bull Content Pool
05
The future is green, yellow and blue
After announcing his return to the sport under the flag of Brazil, Pinheiro 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.”
But his goals aren’t solely performance-based. “I do have goals. But only one of them is about results. My second goal is to give something back to the sport. It lets me live this life that I love so much.
“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.
“I would hope that maybe me showing that I can put Brazil on a map in such a sport encourages people from these 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 be able to take over a legacy like that.
“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. 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 sports 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.”