Francis Ceccarelli of the Philippines finishes 54th in his Olympic giant slalom debut. Meanwhile, Lucas Pinheiro Braathen of Brazil makes history as the first South American to win a medal—a gold at that—in the Winter Olympics.
Lucas Pinheiro Braathen of Brazil makes history as the first South American to win a medal--a gold at that--in the Winter Olympics, while Filipino-Italian Francis Ceccarelli finishes 54th.
No athlete from South America had ever won a medal of any color at the Winter Games, but the 25-year-old Lucas--who switched federations from Norway--broke that record.
The Norway-born slalom specialist had opened up a 0.95-second lead over Beijing 2022 gold medalist Marco Odermatt of Switzerland in the first run, in which only seven skiers were within two seconds of his pace.
Meanwhile, Ceccarelli completed his Olympics debut by finishing two runs of giant slalom and ended up in 54th place. Only 69 out of 81 finished the course.
RUN 1
The 22-year-old Ceccarelli proudly bannered his #67 bib, a meme number, as he successfully finished Run 1.
He improved his order by 10 places with a time of 1:27.23, 13.31 seconds behind then-leader Lucas Pinheiro Braathen of Brazil (1:13.92).
The skier for Brazil competed first in Run 1. No one was able to beat his time.
Meanwhile, Ceccarelli ranked 57th out of 73 finishers in Run 1, good enough to race for Run 2. Eight did not finish the first attempt.
According to FIS rules, the top 30 skiers after the first run compete in the reverse order.
This means the 30th place athlete starts first.
From the 31st place onwards, athlete start in the same order as their Run 1 results.
RUN 2
In Run 2, Pinheiro Braathen broke what would have been an all-Swiss podium by finishing 1:11.08. It was actually good for 11th.
But his ample lead in the first run was enough to secure gold with a total combined time of 2:25.00.
Beijing 2022 gold medalist Marco Odermatt gets silver with 2:25.58, while compatriot Loic Meillad settles for bronze with 2:26.17.
Ceccarelli completed Run 2 with a time of 1:20.87, an improvement from his first run. He got a combined time of 2:48.23, enough for 54th place.
The Philippine skier will have one more competition, the slalom, on February 16.
Meanwhile, compatriot Tallulah Proulx will begin her debut campaign in the women's giant slalom tomorrow, February 15. Run 1 will be at 5:00 p.m., Philippine time.
[ALSO READ: Francis Ceccarelli, Tallulah Proulx represent Philippines at 2026 Winter Olympics]
Katrina Alba is a sports journalist and producer, notably with SportsCenter Philippines before taking on her current role at One Sports.
She primarily writes about basketball and volleyball, with experience covering the SEA Games, Para Games, Asian Games, FIBA World Cup, and FIVB World Cup.
Outside of work, her hobbies include running, swimming, pickleball, yoga, arnis, and krav maga.