MILAN, Italy — Brazilian Lucas Pinheiro Braathen won the men’s giant slalom in Bormio on Saturday to take South America’s first-ever gold at a Winter Olympics, while Chinese freeski superstar Eileen Gu survived a scare to stay on track for her first title of these Games.
As the snow fell in Bormio, Norwegian-born Braathen was fastest in the first leg and kept his cool in the second to win with an aggregate time of 2 min 25.00 sec.
Only Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt came anywhere near him in the first run, claiming his second silver medal of the Milan-Cortina Games by finishing 0.58 sec behind overall.
Odermatt’s Swiss teammate Loic Meillard rounded out the podium.
Braathen, 25, had switched allegiance to his mother’s homeland after falling out with the Norwegian ski federation.
His victory broke the mould in more ways than one — in the testosterone-filled world of alpine skiing, he is a regular at fashion weeks in Paris and Milan and has launched his own skincare range.
“I just wanted to ski as the person I am. I know I can be the best in the world, if I do that to the greatest extent,” he said after clinching gold, the first ever Winter Olympic medal of any color for an athlete representing Latin America.
China’s freeski superstar Eileen Gu stayed on course to defend her Olympic big air crown despite a crash that left her with an apparently sore wrist.
Gu was cruising after scoring 86.00 points in her first run of three but fell on her second attempt.