Luca Harrington has created history winning the 2025 FIS Freeski Big Air Crystal Globe as the top athlete on the 2025 FIS Big Air World Cup Tour.
It is the first FIS Freeski Crystal Globe won by a Kiwi, an exceptional achievement that 21-year-old Harrington earned from his consistent performance on the Big Air World Cup circuit this Northern Hemisphere season.
LATEST HEADLINES:
Jenkins switches allegiance to Football Ferns
An ecstatic Harrington explained his consistency throughout the season paid off.
“This is absolutely unbelievable, coming into this season I didn’t think this was even possible. 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.”
Harrington was third at the sixth and final FIS Freeski Big Air World Cup in Tignes 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.
He 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.
Mac Forehand (USA) was second, just 0.5 points ahead of Harrington while Italian freeskier Miro Tabanelli took the win with a score of 188.25.
It was the final Big Air World Cup of the season and the overall standings confirmed the Crystal Globe award.
Out of the five Big Air World Cups that Harrington dropped into 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.
Reflecting on that fourth place finish, Harrington said he was driven to succeed.
“I think China kept me hungry, being so close the podium was tough and I wanted to be on there so I worked hard, trained hard and kept the consistency up. Everything really worked out this year and I am so happy.”
The only other athlete with four podium finishes this season is Matej Svancer of Austria, but with significant points still awarded for fourth place finishes, Harrington took the Crystal Globe win by 39 points over Svancer. Today’s world cup winner Miro Tabanelli of Italy finished third in the overall standings.
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 set to go down on the 26th of March.