Lucas Pinheiro Braathen made history for Brazil by clinching his nation's first Winter Olympic medal with gold in the giant slalom.

Born in Oslo to a Norwegian father and Brazilian mother, Pinheiro Braathen won World Cup medals for the country of his birth before announcing his shock retirement in 2023 having lost his "joy of living".

Exactly a year to the day, having regained his love for skiing, he returned to the sport in the green and yellow of Brazil - wanting to honour his heritage on his mother's side.

In snowy conditions in Bormio, the 25-year-old delivered a masterclass on the Stelvio piste to beat Swiss great Marco Odermatt to gold by 0.

58 seconds, with Odermatt's team-mate Loic Meillard taking bronze. Pinheiro Braathen's gold also marks the first medal won by any South American country at the Winter Games.

"There is nothing about today, in the heat of the moment, where you are, in any form, in a cognitive state," he said.

"I was skiing completely according to my intuition, and my heart today, and that's what enabled me to become an Olympic champion. "It had nothing to do with the medal, it had nothing to do with the history that I had the potential of writing. "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. "

In a race featuring 81 starters from 62 nations - including Madagascar, Eritrea and Kenya - Pinheiro Braathen had opened up a 0.

95sec lead over Odermatt after the first run, with only seven skiers within two seconds of his pace.

Odermatt, the defending Olympic champion, put pressure on the Brazilian with a scorching second run, but only a crash would have denied Pinheiro Braathen the top step of the podium as he held his nerve in worsening weather.

It means Odermatt, the current and four-time overall World Cup leader across the alpine skiing disciplines, leaves the Milan-Cortina Games without an Olympic gold, despite being expected to dominate

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