One year ago, Lucas Pinheiro Braathen announced his premature retirement from alpine skiing during an emotional press conference ahead of the season opener in Soelden, Austria.
Twelve months later, the charismatic 24-year-old looks happy again and is ready to resume his promising career with renewed enthusiasm.
“It's been a rollercoaster of a year. It's been exciting. It's been intimidating. It's been nerve-wracking, but exciting. It's been everything,” he recently told Olympics.com during the Atomic Media Day near Salzburg.
Braathen's gap year was packed with adventure, from exploring European capitals and cycling through Bordeaux’s vineyards, to unwinding in Ibiza and embracing the vibrant Brazilian lifestyle in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
“It's been a year filled with so many different impressions and experiences, and me allowing myself to explore who I am, my other interests and curiosities outside of the sport of skiing, on a pursuit to find out where my next platform is to make my difference," he told us.
"And it has led me back to this beautiful sport, but on my own terms and with a freedom that will allow me to make the difference that I seek,” he said, pondering each word.
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Lucas Braathen: Promoting diversity in alpine skiing
When he announced his return to the sport under the flag of Brazil, his mother Alessandra's home nation, the Norwegian-born skier had a clear goal in mind: “We're all here on a mission, but we're all on different missions. Mine just happened to be that. I want to inspire others to dare to follow their dream, whatever that is.”
Braathen, in particular, is eager to shake up an environment sometimes perceived as too conservative and traditional: “I think sports and the beauty of sports is its diversity. It's the difference between us athletes that makes it interesting. If we were all just as good skiers and we all look the same and we all talked in the same way, then would you ever watch a ski race? No, you probably wouldn't. There would be no excitement,” he explained.
During his short career, the skier has never been afraid to show his personality, often sporting colourful fingernails and wearing non-mainstream ski clothing: “I want to be an encourager of showing your difference and showing your personality. And I feel as though that is my role within this industry and I'm happy to take on that task.”
The beauty of being an 'outcast'
The 2023 Slalom World Cup winner left Norway, one of the sport's powerhouses, to represent a South American country that has never won a medal in Winter Olympic history.
“I find it beautiful that you are the outcast,” he shared.
"The fact that I am bringing the Brazilian flag to World Cup ski racing, a sport this amazing country has yet to be represented in, feels like a true representation of my mission of creating a difference.
“I just hope that there are some kids out there who feel inspired to dare to follow their dream, whatever that is, no matter what they look like or where they're from or whatever their friends at school or their parents at home think. Your dream is yours to pursue and no one should take that away from you.”
Lucas Braathen’s 'super team'
While he admitted he will miss 'the constant sparring' with his former teammates, Braathen believes that was the 'sort of price' he had to pay to go in the direction he chose to follow.
Nonetheless, the new yellow, green, and blue star will be surrounded by a ‘super team,’ which includes his longtime coach Peter Lederer, Mike Pircher, who previously worked with Austrian legend Marcel Hirscher, and physical trainer Kurt Kothauber, previously part of the staff of Swiss champion Marco Odermatt.
“I am so happy to have such professional individuals in each of their different respective roles. But more importantly, in my task of creating a team that can win ski races again, I've tried to create a community of people that has a team approach,” Braathen said.
“And that allows for people to have different opinions and different approaches and beliefs that that is also the success factor.”
The constant influence will continue to be his father, Bjorn, who will oversee the team's overall structure: “He’s the only one that during all these years has just stuck by my side and is the only one that has seen what this has truly cost and meant for me. So I wouldn't be able to do this without him.”
"My father has been the only one that has believed in my crazy dream as a kid. And he's the only one that he called me crazy the first time I said it. And then he never said it ever again." - Lucas Pinheiro Braathen
A new strategic base ahead of Milano-Cortina 2026
Ahead of his World Cup debut as a Brazilian skier, Braathen has established a new strategic base in Milan, a city that enables him to easily access any airport in the world while pursuing his interests in design and fashion: “I love Italy, I love the mountains, I love the city. I love the creative side. I love everything about it. So to base myself there, I think will work in my favour,” he explained.
“Milano-Cortina 2026 is also coming up. I think just being based and feeling where the Olympics takes place literally my home, I think can contribute into increasing my chances of success.”
However, what matters most to him is having finally found his 'own path,' where ski racing won’t prevent him from exploring other passions: “What is now different is that I can merge my two biggest platforms or playgrounds in life, like I can merge my creative self and my athlete self and I can create these projects where I can merge the two and hopefully create something that has yet to exist,” he shared.
“And I think it is such a privilege to be able to sit here and practice the profession that I most want to whilst being able to remain with my purpose. That's not a privilege just as an athlete, that's a privilege for anyone.”
