Could Brazil win its first Winter Olympic medals in 2026?

No South American nation has won a Winter Olympic medal. None have come close since Argentine bobsleds placed fourth and fifth at the 1928 St. Moritz Games.

That could change at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics.

Brazil suddenly has medal contenders in women’s skeleton and men’s Alpine skiing.

Nicole Silveira placed third in the World Cup skeleton season opener in South Korea this past Saturday. It is believed she is the first athlete from South America to make a World Cup podium in any Winter Olympic discipline.

Silveira, a 30-year-old nurse, was born in Rio Grande do Sul on the southern tip of Brazil. She moved with her family to Canada around age 7.

“From what I remember, they were googling the best city to live in, and the first one to show up was Miami,” Silveira said. “My dad went to Miami alone just to kind of scope it out. He thought there was too many Brazilians in the area already. The second place that they chose was Calgary.”

Silveira did gymnastics, volleyball, soccer and CrossFit growing up. She had just finished her last bodybuilding show in 2017 when she had a life-changing conversation with a stranger at the supplement shop she worked at.

The customer turned out to be part of the Brazilian bobsled team that trained in Calgary. He learned that she was Brazilian and invited her to try out for the Brazil women’s bobsled team, which was also Calgary-based and seeking a third member for a 2018 Olympic bid.

Silveira googled bobsled and gave it a shot. The Brazilian women did not qualify for the 2018 Games. But Silveira liked the touring and community aspects of the sport so much that she took up the Brazil federation president’s invite to try skeleton.

She finished nursing school in 2018 and split her first year sliding head-first on ice in the fall and winter while working 12-hour shifts at Alberta Children’s Hospital in the spring and summer. As her skeleton results improved, she received more funding that allowed her to scale back the overnights at the hospital.

Silveira qualified for the 2022 Olympics, where she donned a helmet with artwork of a Brazilian parrot wearing a stethoscope. She placed 13th, the second-best finish by a Brazilian in any Winter Olympic event. Isabel Clark was ninth in snowboard cross’ Olympic debut in 2006.

“They actually stopped a women’s volleyball game on one of the biggest sports channels in Brazil to play my (Olympic) run live,” Silveira said. “After the Games, I think there was a big commotion of this is what winter sport is, or this is what skeleton is, for Brazil.”

“For the first time in years I feel free, and everyone that knows me, they know that if it’s something that leads me to happiness, it’s my freedom,” he said.

Braathen went home to Norway, then rented out his Oslo apartment and booked a one-way ticket to Brazil.

“I stranded myself on this island, Ilhabela, outside of São Paulo, the state and city that my family’s from, and just tried to get away from everything that had to do with sports and career,” he said.

He returned to Europe for Christmas and crashed at his girlfriend’s place in Paris. Braathen decided in January that he wanted to unretire. He chose to contact the Brazil federation rather than Norway (though he still needed a release from Norway, which was granted).

“I fell in love with sports over there (playing soccer on the streets of São Paulo), so to be able to come full circle, to be able to represent them in the World Cup of a sport, it truly means a lot,” he said. “To be able to bring the dance to the snow is what I’m seeking to do.”

This past Oct. 27, Braathen finished fourth in his first World Cup race in 19 months and first race ever representing Brazil. He had the fastest second run of the field and finished just behind three former Norwegian teammates overall.

“I’M BACK HOME BABY💚,” he posted the next day. “I’m doing me, and I’m proud of it. You can hate it, you can love it, but you can’t deny it. Yesterday might’ve been the most special day of my life.”

Bruna Moura, a Brazil cross-country skier, returned to competition after nearly dying in a car accident while on her way to the 2022 Winter Olympics.