Lucas Pinheiro Braathen is dancing again

"The short answer is that I don't know," was the end of a long conversation we'd had less than a week earlier in a hut just a few steps from the start gate of the Gran Risa, the slope on which Lucas Pinheiro Braathen wrote one of the most exciting pages of his young career when he won the Giant slalom in Alta Badia by just two hundredths of a second ahead of his teammate Kristoffersen. We're here at Oakley Community Days, the event the brand organizes to make  about its philosophy, and the question was whether we'd see him again dancing among the plastic poles that cling to the edges of his skis like a dance to smooth out slopes that give goosebumps when seen from above. He had already given me the long answer in the course of our conversation, when he told me how he had discovered his showman's nature as a boy playing soccer in the streets of São Paulo, or how painful it had been to announce his official retirement from competitive skiing last year in Soelden, one day before the start of the winter season. A fierce and emotional renunciation, a physical reaction to the cage that had been built around him. Because, as he himself has often said, you can only dance if you are free to do so.

And freedom is the feeling that drives Pinheiro Braathen in all his choices - "I've always seen my life as a constant discovery, exploring new places every time and talking to different people is what makes me really happy" - an elusive and, for that very reason, wonderful quest that drives his many different passions and that narrows the angle between his Lycra suit and the snow millimeter by millimeter. "I'm still an adrenaline junkie," he says jokingly when I ask him if he misses throwing himself out of a gate after sticking a number on his back, "I've always tried to tell a story, my story, in those seconds of extreme speed." Braathen, as the commentators call him, Lucas, as his friends call him, or Pinheiro, as the fans who are in love with his extroverted style and musical skiing call him, wants to write a story with snow and edges like a poet with a pen and inkwell. "Every time I'm in the race, my first goal is to give the audience a show so that they have fun and fall in love with the sport". And as an experienced performer, he knows full well that the energy you receive matches the energy you give, keeping them engaged and excited throughout the show.

"There are two different shows that take place when skiing. One is the one visible to everyone, where I'm flying through the poles as fast as I can and trying to stay upright, and then there's the one that goes on inside me while I'm skiing." All the work that is done before the start, the work that nobody sees but which is crucial for the final performance, is brought to light. "The morning yoga, the gym, the training, the diet, all the hard work and sacrifices I've made to get to this level - when I'm on the slopes, I think back on it and it's natural for me to show my feelings. I owe it to the people who watch me and cheer me on". Like a jigsaw puzzle, racing is a collection of seemingly disparate pieces that need to be put together with a lot of patience and creativity. "When you drive a great race, when you win, it's like putting the last piece in place. It's like you're finishing the puzzle". But then you have to take the puzzle apart and start again. And Lucas knows that well, he knows the pain of making the right decision to stay true to himself so that the child he still has inside him feels comfortable.

In conversation with Pinheiro Braathen, it immediately becomes clear that his idea of sport is not just about official competitions, but about a philosophy of life that accompanies him in his actions and passions, even without skis on his feet. "Sport was a way for me to finally be myself and show others who I really am". Like all introverted boys - 'I was very shy as a child,' he admits at one point - he also had to find the right stage for his performance. And initially this was not in the snow of Norway, but in the streets of Sao Paulo, where his mother's side of the family lives and where he felt free for the first time while playing football with other children. His idols as a child were not actually skiers, but Ronaldinho and Dennis Rodman, athletes who won everything, but still remained completely themselves, with all their idiosyncrasies and uniqueness. "They knew how to put on a show," says Lucas, who will later put on his own by DJing the evening after our interview and closing the Oakley Community Days here in Alta Badia.

The Oakley Community Days are a family reunion, a chance to spend a few days together, in keeping with the values of the Californian brand, for which Pinheiro Braathen is one of the most visible testimonials. And even after the abrupt end to his competitive career, Oakley has always stood by him and supported him in his decision. "When I told them of my decision, they were immediately on my side and together we worked out how I could tell my story". Just like at the beginning of his career, when his victories were only in his imagination. "When I started skiing, I was really a wreck, I didn't even have the right equipment, but I found a group that took me in straight away, no questions asked. We were all very different people, but we shared a love of skiing and, above all, a desire to have fun together. And that's what I still love about the mountains: the feeling of belonging to a family that chooses you". For a few days, Lucas reminisced about that time when skiing was above all about friendship, fun and brotherhood.

Oakley no longer had to focus on his athletic achievements - at least for now - but was able to show Pinheiro Braathen's more human and personal side, conveying the values that represent the brand beyond the athlete - what Lucas would call 'my true colors'. Be it those of his designer clothes or the nail polish on his fingers, or those of the records he likes to listen to before or after a race - "when I need to recharge, old skool 90s hip hop or hard tekno, when I want to relax Bossanova or deep house" - and those that cover the two brand new genderless ski goggles from Pinheiro Braathen and Oakley. Two goggle models - Line Miner and Flight Path - in which pink and blue coexist with the technical and industrial design that we now associate with the Oakley esthetic. The two colors merge and overlap and are in dialog with what Lucas' philosophy of life is: to bring everything together - he repeats the verb merge several times, gesticulating and revealing his whole Latin soul - without borders or barriers. An approach he tells me he also used when he was asked to design with Oakley.

In fact, fashion has been one of the passions that have filled the last six months of non-competition. It's led him to attend various fashion shows and even walk for a fashion brand - 'compared to competitions, you feel really naked, Ok I was also really naked up there' - and collaborate with various technical and sportswear brands that are obviously dedicated to snow. "I always try to bring something of myself to it, even though I'm not really a design expert, but mostly it's a way for me to broaden my horizons." Pinheiro Braathen is truly an athlete of his time, for whom there is no right or wrong way to be an athlete. "I respect athletes who train around the clock, who are fully focused on their careers and who make huge sacrifices to stay at the highest level possible. At the same time, I also love the showcase athletes, the natural talents. The beauty of sport lies precisely in the fact that it manages to pit very different athletes, very different people against each other and see who wins". And it was precisely this curiosity about the different nuances of humanity, as well as the fact that he is an adrenaline junkie, that brought him back to the track.

In fact, from next season, Lucas Pinheiro Braathen will no longer be gliding down the white slopes with the Norwegian flag, but with the Brazilian flag. He announced this last week at a press conference in the Red Bull Hangar in Austria together with the President of Brazil Ski Federation. A decision of the heart, of the mind and of freedom, which he had tried to explain without perhaps having the courage to confirm it. Or maybe he just didn't want his future career to be the main story of this weekend in Alta Badia. On the other hand, for Pinheiro Braathen as an athlete, it's not just about those few seconds of extreme speed: 'Sport goes beyond pure competition though, I don't want to be defined just by whether I managed to push my skis a few thousandths ahead of someone else's while skiing down between hard plastic poles. But if I've inspired a child to be themselves and pursue their passion, then I've done my job really well."