Olympic champion Pinheiro Braathen leads World Cup giant slalom with Odermatt fifth

Olympic champion Lucas Pinheiro Braathen was fastest in the first run of a World Cup giant slalom on Saturday with Marco Odermatt almost one second back in fifth. Pinheiro Braathen’s historic gold-medal win for Brazil last month pushed Odermatt down to silver, and he is the Swiss star’s closest challenger in the season-long giant slalom standings. On a sunny 4 Celsius (39 Fahrenheit) day in Slovenia, Pinheiro Braathen took a 0.14-second lead over Stefan Brennsteiner.