BORMIO Italy (AFP) — Brazil’s Lucas Pinheiro Braathen held his nerve to win the men’s alpine skiing giant slalom in Bormio on Saturday for South America’s first-ever gold in the Winter Olympics.

The Norwegian-born Braathen, fastest down in the first leg, was composure personified in the second to win in an aggregate time of 2min 25.00sec.

Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt, already a winner of team combined silver and super-G bronze, claimed a second silver, at 0.58sec, having been the only skier to have got within a second of the Brazilian in the opening run.

Odermatt’s teammate Loic Meillard, who partnered Odermatt in the combined, rounded out the podium at 1.17sec.

The victory for Braathen, racing for his mother’s homeland of Brazil after falling out with the Norwegian ski federation, meant a first-ever Winter Olympic medal of any colour for an athlete representing Latin America.

The best previous individual Winter Olympic result was Brazil’s Isabel Clark Ribeiro, who finished ninth in the snowboard cross in the 2006 Torino Games.

The best alpine skiing result to date was that of Chile’s Thomas Grob, who finished 11th in the combined at the 1998 Nagano Games.

The 25-year-old Braathen was born in Oslo to a Norwegian father and Brazilian mother, but spent time in South America as a child after his parents separated.

His father, whom he describes as a ski bum, won custody and brought him back to Norway, but Braathen made yearly visits to Brazil from the age of 11. He was raised speaking both Norwegian and Portuguese.

After falling out with the Norwegian ski federation over sponsorship rights, Braathen stepped away from the World Cup circuit in the 2023-24 season before returning under the Brazilian flag in October 2024.

Racing for Brazil, Braathen has sealed nine World Cup podium finishes — five in the giant slalom, four in the slalom — and one victory, in the slalom in the Finnish resort of Levi in November.

On the Stelvio course in Bormio, experienced Austrian Marco Schwarz, a seven-time world championship medallist and 18th fastest in the first leg, led through until the top eight appeared.

Norway’s Atle Lie McGrath was first in the start hut as racing moved to the business end of affairs.

In increasingly cold, snowy conditions, McGrath went into the lead.

Then came Austria’s Stefan Brennsteiner, a winner in the World Cup in Copper Mountain this season, but he failed to dislodge McGrath.

Vastly experienced Henrik Kristoffersen was next up. The 31-year-old who was 2019 world giant slalom champion, however, came in behind his teammate.

That left the top five racers, starting with France’s Leo Anguenot.

The Frenchman finished 0.16sec off McGrath, but Switzerland’s Thomas Tumler made no such mistake, the reigning world GS silver medallist racing into the lead.

Tumler could only look on as teammates Meillard and Odermatt followed before Braathen.

Meillard scorched into the lead to ramp the pressure up on Odermatt and the Brazilian.

Odermatt, searching a third medal and first gold here, laid down a crushing run to snatch the lead in some style, 0.59sec over Meillard.

Only Braathen was left in the start hut as Odermatt lapped up the applause from a large Swiss crowd.

The Brazilian kicked out of the gate and held his nerve, again mastering the mid-section flats to deliver the 11th fastest second run, which was enough for a comfortable victory.

Braathen looked at the big screen in tearful disbelief in the finish area, thrusting one ski up to the acclaim of the public before falling into the welcoming arms of his father Bjorn.