Pinheiro Braathen Wins Thriller to Blow GS Globe Race Wide Open

He arrived in Slovenia as Olympic champion. He leaves as the man who has turned a comfortable lead into a white-knuckle fight. Lucas Pinheiro Braathen delivered yet another masterclass on the Podkoren 3 course on Saturday, charging to victory in the men's World Cup giant slalom in Kranjska Gora to reduce Marco Odermatt's GS discipline lead to barely a handful of points — and in the process, set up what promises to be one of the most dramatic Finals in recent memory.

The Brazilian Olympic champion posted a first-run time of 1:10.36, attacking the steep terrain with speed and aggression across all sections and delivering the fastest third sector of the race to carry momentum all the way to the finish. He never relinquished that lead, completing a dominant display to claim victory ahead of Switzerland's Loïc Meillard in second and Austria's Stefan Brennsteiner in third.

“The sun was out, spring is springing, the fans gave me amazing energy as per usual and I just felt like it today, my skiing felt like dancing so I thought I would pay a little tribute to it,” Braathen said laughing. “What a fun day it has been.”

“On the flat it didn’t even turn for four or five consecutive gates. But this is what skiing is all about. Skiing is about showing you’re fast on the straights and fast on the curvy and offset types of course and at the end of the day the guy that runs off with the Globe, he’s the best overall. I train every single day to be ready for whatever unfolds. I am very proud of today’s performance, I really am.

It was a performance of unrelenting quality — and it could scarcely have come at a more important moment.

The arithmetic is now breathtaking. Coming into Kranjska Gora, Odermatt led the GS standings with 450 points to Braathen's 347 — a 103-point advantage that, had it remained intact after Saturday, would have all but ended the championship battle before the Finals. It has not remained intact. With Braathen banking his winner's points and Odermatt enduring a deeply below-par afternoon, the gap has collapsed to near-nothing. One more giant slalom remains on the regular calendar before the World Cup Finals in Hafjell, Norway — and the title is now entirely open.

The story of the day — perhaps of the week — was not Braathen's brilliance alone. It was Odermatt's unexpected and very significant failure to match him.

The Swiss star, wearing bib 1 and starting as the pre-race favourite, set the early standard on the first run with a time of 1:11.28. However, he skied aggressively but not as cleanly as he would have liked, with his splits showing steady losses through the upper sections. By the end of the first run, he trailed Braathen by 0.92 seconds in fifth place  — a deficit that, on a course as compressed as Podkoren 3, was always going to be almost impossible to recover. The second run brought no reprieve.

“It’s a good feeling,” said the three-time Olympic medallist. “It was two weeks since the Olympics so we had a good time off. Good rest and training but you never really know if your level is still good enough to fight for the front. To be able to do it is great.”

For the fifth season in a row, Odermatt has been largely untouchable in GS, with fifteen wins in his last 26 World Cup races in the discipline. On Saturday, he looked human. A man who has dominated giant slalom as completely as any racer of his generation found himself watching the Brazilian celebrate at the finish line from a position he has rarely occupied this season.

Switzerland's Meillard continues a remarkable streak of high-level performances. He finished the first run in third position, 0.35 seconds back, tracking Braathen through most of the decisive second run before losing ground in the final section. The silver adds to a season in which Meillard has embedded himself firmly in the podium conversation — and keeps him very much in the hunt for the discipline globe heading to Hafjell.

Brennsteiner's bronze, meanwhile, is another chapter in what has been the best campaign of his long career. The Austrian, in his eleventh season on tour, entered Kranjska Gora looking for his first ever Crystal Globe race podium spot — and has been delivering consistently at the very highest level. Third on the Podkoren 3 course is not a surprise result for Brennsteiner at this point in the season; it is simply confirmation of what he has already demonstrated.

The drama extended well beyond the podium.

Atle Lie McGrath, locked in one of the most tightly contested slalom title battles of the season, suffered a painful afternoon in the GS. The Norwegian clipped a gate approaching the flat section, was thrown off balance and bled away all momentum, finishing at the back of the field — 1.25 seconds behind the leader in the first run. For a racer of his standing, and at a moment when every point counts across every discipline, it was a deflating result.

Marco Schwarz also struggled, losing significant time in the lower half of the course to finish well adrift of where his starting position suggested he ought to be.

Perhaps the most anxious figure on the hill, however, was Spain's Joan Verdú. Verdú arrived in Kranjska Gora sitting 24th in the GS standings, directly on the bubble for World Cup Finals qualification. His DNF leaves him waiting to see whether his accumulated points hold inside the top 25 — the cutoff for a place at Hafjell. An outcome decided not by skiing but by arithmetic is always the hardest to accept.

Not all the surprises were negative. The United States placed three skiers into the second run — a genuine positive for the Stifel U.S. Ski Team. River Radamus qualified 15th, while Bridger Gile, carrying bib 51, produced one of the best runs of his career to qualify 23rd — only the second time in his World Cup career that he has reached the second run. Behind him, young Ryder Sarchett qualified 24th.In a sport where high-bib runs into the second round are celebrated as they deserve to be, Gile's achievement was one of the afternoon's most heartfelt moments.

The World Cup Finals in the GS discipline are scheduled for Tuesday 24 March on the Olympialøypa course at Hafjell, near Lillehammer, Norway. Braathen, riding the momentum of Olympic gold and a victory on one of the circuit's most demanding courses, will arrive there knowing the globe is within his grasp. Odermatt, with the cold comfort of knowing he has won this title four seasons running, will arrive knowing he cannot afford another afternoon like Saturday's.

The Brazilian rolls on. The Swiss great is rattled. And the most hotly contested GS title race in years is heading to Norway with everything still to play for.