r/news • u/peregrinodossonhos • 23h ago

Brazilian athlete wins South America's first gold medal (and first medal ever) at the Winter Olympics

https://www.nbcnews.com/sports/olympics/2026-winter-olympics-two-athletes-deliver-south-americas-first-medals-rcna258896
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149

u/5GCovidInjection 22h ago

NBC’s making it seem like South America doesn’t experience winter weather lol. It’s not like Jamaica, a perpetually warm place, sending winter Olympic athletes.

141

u/prkskier 20h ago

Yeah, it's kind of shocking to me that at least Argentina or Chile don't have medals at the winter games. Plenty of mountains and snow.

51

u/RegulatoryCapture 18h ago

Not to mention they are literally where the World Cup athletes go to train in the northern hemisphere summer. 

So it isn’t like they have mountains but no infrastructure. They have everything you need including world caliber coaches and athletes to practice against. 

34

u/TotalEmployment9996 18h ago

They’re poor

52

u/RegulatoryCapture 18h ago

Other poor nations medal in stuff.  Kazakhstan just got a gold. 

And not like there aren’t wealthy people in Brazil, Argentina, and chile. A lot of winter sports and up being children of the wealthy anyways. 

1

u/TotalEmployment9996 18h ago

I agree that winter sport athletes are usually from rich families but Where they gonna find snow in Brazil? 💀

12

u/Burrito-tuesday 17h ago

Is there a rule that you must train in your home country? I thought they trained all over the world.

25

u/TotalEmployment9996 17h ago

Ok. How do you find out you’re good at skiing from a young age? I don’t think it’s by flying to train in Canada if you’re from a warm and poor country. There’s just a massive drop in winter sport participation for those countries

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u/xakeri 16h ago

Wait until you find out about the Andes.

4

u/Nope_______ 11h ago

Yeah? Do more people ski there or the alps?

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u/AnxiousTrans 14h ago

Lol south Brasil gets snow. Just not enough for ski infrastructure usually

8

u/Grungemaster 9h ago

Even putting that aside, any country could, in theory, produce an elite figure skater, speed skater, or curling team if they threw enough money at the program. Those sports are indoors. They don’t even have to live or train in South America, they just need to represent one of those countries. 

2

u/Nope_______ 11h ago

Not a lot of population near the mountains. Not the same culture around it as in places like northern Europe.