Norwegian and Brazilian, residing in Austria. Family in São Paulo, girlfriend in Rio de Janeiro, mother in New Zealand. Since he was a child, skier Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, 25, has been aware that the issue of identity for those who live between two or more countries is a topic that can be emotionally confusing. As an athlete, he says he takes advantage of this multiplicity today.
“In Norway, I was always different. I was a Brazilian child, with a different accent, with bigger lips than everyone else. In Brazil, I’m a foreigner. What I understood very quickly is that you’re not at home anywhere,” he told Sheet this Saturday morning (7), in Milan, hours after being the protagonist —in the colors of the Brazilian flag— in the parade of Brazilian athletes at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games.
“I found this very difficult in my childhood and I had to live for many years before I understood that this difference between cultures brought me a lot of growth. Today I feel gratitude, because I would never be the athlete I am if it weren’t for this somewhat complicated story”, he said, in his Portuguese with a slight accent and some mistakes — his English is impeccable.
Lucas said he found himself as he began traveling more as a skier. “I need to follow the snow to be able to practice the sport. And then you meet new people, new cultures, countries with totally different natures. I started to feel at home, because I met other people who were on the same journey.”
As an athlete, he says that this ability to adapt is a differentiator. “In sport this is an important quality. I can’t control the snow, the quality of the snow, whether it’s sunny, whether it’s dark, whether it’s raining. I need to accept everything, adjust and be a champion in the same way”, says he, who says he undergoes therapy and meditation.
Interest in Lucas is not only growing in Brazil in recent weeks. The international media is also watching, with journalists from different countries present at this morning’s meeting, held at Casa Brasil, a space that the COB (Brazilian Olympic Committee) set up in Milan. The day before, the New York Times had named Lucas as an athlete from the Global South (emerging countries) to keep an eye on in the coming weeks.
Lucas has 20 medals in alpine skiing stages of the World Cup, 8 of which for Brazil, a country he has represented since 2024, after having stopped competing for Norway.
He often says that switching confederations was a decision that left him freer to follow his own goals and values, rather than “the dreams of others — the media, the industry, the team.”
But the choice is not without negative moments, such as a certain loneliness on difficult days. “I was on a team with ten other World Cup level athletes. When you have bad days, losing, the team has other athletes who understand your situation. That was a really beautiful thing I had in this part of my career.” Not to mention that, in a more complicated phase, it is possible to reduce your presence in the group, “hide behind other athletes”, he stated. “That doesn’t exist in my reality.”
To escape the spotlight and high expectations for Brazil’s first medal at the Winter Games, Lucas will spend the next few days in Austria, training. His first competition at the Games will be on the 14th, in Bormio, a track that he says he knows well, but which will have different characteristics from what he is used to finding at World Cups.
“It is not a very well-known track for athletes who compete in the technical categories [como são chamadas as modalidades que ele disputa, slalom e slalom gigante]because it’s mainly a downhill and super-G track”, he said. “It’s a slightly easier track than the World Cup tracks, but it’s harder to ski fast.”
