Brazil's Braathen in pole for historic Olympic giant slalom medal

The Norwegian-born Braathen was first out of the start hut and clocked a dominant 1min 13.92sec down the Stelvio course.

Only Switzerland's Marco Odermatt, who won giant slalom gold at the Beijing Olympics four years ago, got within a second of the Brazilian, at 0.95sec.

Odermatt's teammates Loic Meillard, who was 1.57sec slower, and Thomas Tumler (1.89) sat third and fourth.

France's Leo Anguenot was fifth fastest, at 1.91sec, with a disbelieving Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway in sixth, a massive 1.93sec off Braathen's electric pace. Reigning world champion Raphael Haaser of Austria was 24th, 3.54sec down.

Braathen, racing for his mother's homeland of Brazil after falling out with the Norwegian ski federation, will take to the second leg, slated for 1200 GMT, with an eye on bagging 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.

"I lost a line a little bit in the middle," said a gobsmacked Kristoffersen, who won Olympic giant slalom silver in the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.

"So I lost some speed there and I was too straight at the bottom.

He said the first leg was "comical".

"It's flat, but the rest is kind of OK. Bib number one was definitely not a disadvantage, but there shouldn't be that much of a difference between 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, it's very hard to say."

Kristoffersen's teammate Timon Haugan came in 14th, a whopping 2.57sec off Braathen.

"When he finished his first run, I said to my coach that's for sure the leader of today," Haugan said.

"Lucas really took advantage of his number and followed his gameplan perfectly. It was incredible skiing. He's one of the best on skiing flats and you could really see it on the first run."

Asked whether he might be able to catch Braathen on the second run, Haugan said: "No chance! A podium will be hard also, but nothing is impossible, I've just got to go for it."

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, who 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.