“That was dramatic”
Ski racer crashes into deer before race
Updated 10/28/2025 – 1:34 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
The alpine ski racers started the new season at the weekend. For Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, the year started with a shock.
The new winter sports season has begun. Alpine skiing began with an exciting weekend in Sölden. Despite the difficult conditions with wind and snowfall, which delayed the start of the second round, things got down to business in Austria.
However, things were less positive for Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, who started for Brazil. Because he had an accident before the race. “We caught a reindeer,” said the 25-year-old in an ORF interview. But it was obviously a deer, not a reindeer. Braathen therefore arrived at the slopes a little late.
“We were on the way up when we caught it. It was dramatic and I don’t know what to say,” he explained. “It was certainly a dramatic start to the day, but skiing is also dramatic.” Braathen remained unscathed and escaped with horror.
But he couldn’t completely shake off the experience. He missed the inspection of the track and even had to go onto the slopes with start number four – and was then eliminated in the first round.
The Swiss Marco Odermatt took the victory, it was his 46th success in the World Cup. Anton Grammel was the best German in eleventh place. Fabian Gratz in 17th, Jonas Stockinger in 19th and the former parallel world champion Alexander Schmid in his comeback after another serious knee injury in 27th place.
Grammel could become the biggest German trump card in the giant slalom this winter. At the end of last season and at the World Cup in Saalbach-Hinterglemm he had already made people sit up and take notice.