Luca Harrington Makes History As NZ's First Freeski Crystal Globe Winner

Friday, 14 March 2025, 7:57 pm
Article: RNZ

RNZ Sport

Wanaka freeskier Luca Harrington has been crowned the Big Air World Cup champion after finishing third in the season-ending event in France.

The 21-year-old is the first New Zealander to claim the Crystal Globe for the overall champion for the 2025 FIS Big Air World Cup Tour.

Harrington finished in third place at the sixth and final event in Tignes, France, putting down a "never been done" switch right triple corked 1800 with an esco grab on his first run, which was the highest scoring single trick of the competition.

Harrington combined that trick with a right triple corked 1980 safety grab for a total score of 187.00 points, which earned him a place on the tightly fought podium in third.

"This is absolutely unbelievable. Coming into this season I didn't think this was even possible," Harrington said afterwards.

"To be standing here holding this globe means the world to me and I need to thank everyone who has helped me along this journey to get here, I am so grateful for this moment."

Italian Miro Tabanelli took the win with a score of 188.25, just minutes after his younger sister won the women's competition.

Mac Forehand of the US finished in second place, just 0.5 points ahead of Harrington.

Out of the five Big Air World Cups that Harrington competed in this season, he finished on the podium in four of them (two wins, a second and a third) and just off the podium in fourth in his fifth event in Beijing in December 2024.

Harrington, alongside teammate Ben Barclay, are the top two qualifiers into the Tignes FIS Freeski Slopestyle World Cup set to go down Friday night.

New Zealand has previously won two FIS Crystal Globes in snowboarding - Tiarn Collins won the 2022 Slopestyle World Cup standings and Zoi Sadowski-Synnott won the 2021 Big Air World Cup standings.

Alpine ski racing superstar Alice Robinson is currently leading the 2025 Giant Slalom World Cup standings, with the final event on the 26f March.

© Scoop Media

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