From Brazil, beaches and football to Snowboard Cross, Bethonico’s journey is one of resilience

He comes from the same country as Brazilian football legend Pele and lives in a city famous for its surf – but Noah Bethonico is determined to make his name as a Snowboard Cross athlete.

So how exactly did the 22-year-old Brazilian go from his coastal hometown of Florianopolis to competing on the FIS Snowboard World Cup circuit at some of the world’s best snow resorts?

Like many people who were born and raised in Brazil, Bethonico had never even seen snow until he travelled outside of South America to the United States of America on a family holiday and strapped on a snowboard for the first time.

“I fell in love with the sport when I was eight years old, the first time I saw snow when I went to the USA,” said Bethonico.

But it was not just natural ability that cemented Bethonico’s love of snowboarding – there was also the thrill of speeding down a snow-covered mountain.

“And snowboarding was the easiest and best one.”

It is perhaps this need for speed and the excitement of racing against other athletes which convinced a young Bethonico to focus on Snowboard Cross instead of becoming the next Pele or Ronaldinho.

His father, a Brazilian motocross champion, also encouraged him to try other sports in Florianopolis.

“My dad has always pushed me and my brother to do sports. He went surfing with us, skateboarding, mountain biking, snowboarding, wakeboarding – everything you can think of, we did growing up,” said the 22-year-old.

After his family moved to the U.S. when Bethonico was 12 years old, the Brazilian went from surfing and playing football to snowboarding every day.

“I started snowboarding a lot during competitions … and I started seeing my potential and seeing how I could be really, really good one day if I kept doing it,” he said.

“From 12 to 14 I lived in Snowmass village in Colorado and I snowboarded every single day in the winter. We went travelling all around the USA competing and doing Snowboard Cross competitions and it was so much fun, it was amazing.”

What made it even more special for Bethonico was being able to share his Snowboard Cross journey with his younger brother Zion.

“Honestly, me and my brother were really, really good from the start. My brother was winning every single competition and I was winning almost every competition,” said Noah Bethonico.

In 2020, at the age of 16, Noah became the first Brazilian snowboarder to compete at a Winter Youth Olympic Games after finishing 11th at the Lausanne 2020 Games.

Despite not progressing to the semi-final, Bethonico did not leave Lausanne empty-handed and gained valuable competition and technical experience that he still uses today.

“You have to get the transition of everything and I did not know that during that competition and that was the reason why I didn’t advance to the final eight. That was a big, big lesson for me because I was riding really well and in the final stretch – when there were just jumps and rollers – I was casing everything, I was knuckling everything.

“I thought that because it was downhill it wasn’t going to affect my speed, but it did and I only saw after the race how everyone would catch up to me and pass me on the final straight because I was always leading.”

Bethonico also used his Lausanne 2020 experience to help younger brother Zion prepare for the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games – and secure a history-making bronze medal for Brazil.

“I gave him a lot of advice. I talked a lot because I was nervous and kept telling him everything that I knew, everything that I could (laughs),” said Noah.

Noah Bethonico’s brotherly advice wasn’t just a pep talk but the lived experience of competing in the sport’s round robin Youth Olympic format and the importance of getting back up after you fall.

“It was a round robin event, just like my Youth Olympics, which means if you fall or mess up in one of the heats, it doesn’t matter,you just need to keep going,” said Noah Bethonico.

“You need to do well in the other heats and that’s the most important thing. So I just told him to try not to get stressed out, try not to get in your mind, try not to get nervous and do your thing – ‘you’ve got it, just trust yourself, trust your skills’.”

Being able to watch Zion compete in the final at Gangwon 2024 also meant Noah Bethonico understood exactly what his then 17-year-old brother was feeling when he crossed the finish line.

"It was crazy because I was so, so happy for him, so proud of him, and when he crossed the finish line he sat down and I knew he was upset.

"I knew that he wasn’t happy with the result because we both knew that he could have won, and that’s the most disappointing thing. But it’s still amazing, it’s still really, really good.

“But it’s crazy, we both had the same feeling. He crossed the finish line, he sat down and put his hands to his face, and I was like ‘oh my God’ and we both were like ‘dude you could have won this, easily’. He had it, he was riding so good but he was just super unlucky because he crashed into the American guy and they both went down. But if he had stayed up, it would have been a totally different result I’m sure.”

Learning to bounce back from disappointment and persevering with training has also helped Noah Bethonico on the FIS World Cup circuit.

“I would say what I’ve learned from the World Cup (competition) is to be resilient because a lot of times the results don’t come," he said.

That resilience is also what keeps Noah Bethonico going after he did not qualify for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in his quest to become the first Brazilian man to compete in Snowboard Cross at an Olympic Winter Games.

Bethonico’s Milano Cortina 2026 qualification bid comes on the eve of the 20-year anniversary of when Isabel Clark Ribeiro became the first woman to represent Brazil in Snowboard Cross at the Games. To date, her ninth-place finish at Torino 2006 remains Brazil’s best result at the Winter Olympic Games.

“My ambition has always been to go to the Olympics and do really, really well, do amazingly well and be proud of my journey,” said Bethonico.

“My intentions now are to train really, really hard and finish the World Cup season really strong and get at least one really, really good result to finish the season with a good taste in my mouth and start next season even stronger.”

The 2025/26 FIS Snowboard Cross World Cup season will resume in March after the Milano Cortina 2026 Games, with athletes competing in Erzurum (TUR) from 6 March.