Harrington medals again in Freeski Big Air
- editor59343
- 13 hours ago
- 2 min read
Wanaka's Luca Harrington has claimed third-place finish at the FIS Freeski Big Air World Cup in Steamboat, Colorado.
It's Harrington’s seventh consecutive Big Air World Cup podium finish and his third in a row this season.
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Harrington had expected even more from himself in the event, but was still happy to podium.
“To be honest, I was looking for a bit more today, I had a great training and a good plan but didn’t really perform my best when it came down to it, but in saying that, I could not be more grateful to be back on the podium for the third time this season.”
The 21-year-old put down a solid first run, landing a switch right triple corked 1800 esco grab, but didn’t quite execute his trademark trick as cleanly as he would have liked. He followed that up with a right triple corked 1980 safety grab, but a heavy landing and a hand touch resulted in a points deduction from the judges in a sport that demands perfection.
With the pressure on for the third run, Harrington knew he had to put down a high scoring trick to replace his second run score of 66.50 if he wanted to remain on the podium. Remaining calm and composed, Harrington went for the triple 1980 again, this time with a critical grab, and put it down cleanly to be rewarded an 84.50 for a total combined score of 172.75.
On feeling the pressure, Harrington explaiined things didn't quite go as he wanted.
"It didn’t quite to plan today from run one, I was going to try two different tricks on my second and third run, but that plan didn’t happen. I was feeling the pressure going into that last run but still managed to put it down when it really mattered and I am really proud of myself for that - it was a mental battle today.”
It was a USA one, two on the podium on home snow, with Troy Podmilsak taking the win for his second time this season and Konnor Ralph finishing in second place.
The next major Freeski Big Air event for Harrington is the prestigious, invite only Aspen X Games at the end of January 2026.
For the next block of training Harrington explained; “I will be making the most of every opportunity and pushing towards peaking for Milano Cortina, trying to stay healthy while pushing the limit.”