Lucas Pinheiro Braathen Wins Alpine Ski World Cup Opener in Soelden
Lucas Pinheiro Braathen started the new Alpine Ski World Cup season just as he finished the last one. The Giant Slalom World Cup Champion secured a commanding victory in Sölden. It's his fourth straight win in the discipline, including the Olympic gold medal in Milano Cortina 2016.
In front of 14,300 ski fans, on a bumpy, windy course with the start lowered to the reserve start position, reducing each run to under a minute, the Norwegian-born skier, now representing Brazil, beat Olympic slalom champion Loïc Meillard by 0.48 seconds. Last year's winner in Sölden, Marco Odermatt, rounded off the podium, finishing just one hundredth of a second behind his Swiss teammate.
Leading after the first run, Pinheiro Braathen skied aggressively and without mistakes in the second run to secure his 9th World Cup victory, the fifth in the Giant Slalom. It was the 26-year-old's second victory in Sölden. In 2020, at the age of 20, Lucas Pinheiro-Braathen was the youngest winner in the Rettenbach glacier.
"There was a lot of pressure on my shoulders today. But pressure is privilege, and I capitalized on it. I'm really proud to start the new season with this skiing," Pinheiro Braathen said.
Loïc Meillard, who had never finished higher than fifth on the Rettenbach glacier, achieved his first podium finish in Sölden.
"Sölden and I haven't been friends in the last few years, so to start the season with a podium and some solid skiing feels good," Meillard said.
Marco Odermatt secured his 103rd podium finish in his 200th World Cup race, and claimed his 47th World Cup Giant Slalom podium today, surpassing Michael von Gruenigen and Vreni Schneider to become the Swiss racer with the most podiums of all time.
“I made a big step in the second run. I attacked much more than in the first run. I found the race gear, and that's the most important thing. To start the season with a podium is always nice," Odermatt said.
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