Wānaka's Luca Harrington (21) has made New Zealand freeski history in France this morning, 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 ever won by a Kiwi, an achievement Luca earned from his consistent performance on the Big Air World Cup circuit this Northern Hemisphere season. 

“This is absolutely unbelievable,” Luca said. “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.”

Luca finished in third place at the sixth and final FIS Freeski Big Air World Cup in Tignes this morning, 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. 

Watch Luca in action here.

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 of the USA finished in second place, just 0.5 points ahead of Luca, and Italian freeskier Miro Tabanelli took the win with a score of 188.25.

Out of the five Big Air World Cups that Luca 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. 

“Everything really worked out this year and I am so happy,” Luca said.

Luca, alongside teammate Ben Barclay, are the top two qualifiers into the upcoming Tignes FIS Freeski Slopestyle World Cup set to go down tonight (Friday March 14, NZT).

This will be the final event of the 2025 FIS Freeski Park & Pipe World Cup Tour and the decider for the overall Freeski Crystal Globe.

PHOTO: Snow Sports NZ