Luca is a freeski slopestyle and big air specialist currently competing on the FIS World Cup circuit. He won the 2023 Aspen Open Slopestyle and placed third at the Youth Olympic Games in 2020 in freeski halfpipe and 10th in freeski slopestyle.
Luca grew up shredding the local mountains around Wanaka with his family, including his older brother Ben who is a competitive freeski halfpipe skier.
2023 Apen Open Slopestyle gold medalist, 2023 Silvaplana Slopestyle World Cup 4th place, 2023 FIS Freeski Big Air World Championships 5th place (matching NZ's best ever result in this event), 2020 Youth Olympic Games bronze medallist in freeski halfpipe and 10th place in freeski slopestyle.
Wānaka athlete Luca Harrington was born into a family of avid freeskiers and learnt to ski at a very young age.
When he was just 14 years old he competed in his first FIS event at his home mountain of Cardrona.
In 2020 he represented New Zealand at the Youth Olympic Winter Games held in Leysin, Switzerland, where claimed the bronze medal in freeski halfpipe. This marked the first major event podium of his career.
Over the next couple of years Luca continued to climb the ranks through the North American Cup, European Cup and Australia New Zealand Cup competition circuts, choosing to focus on slopestyle and big air.
2023 was a breakthrough year for Luca - he matched New Zealand's best ever Freeski Big Air World Championships result, with a 5th place in Bakuriani, Georgia. Just weeks after he secured his career best World Cup finish, with a fourth place result at the Silvaplana Slopestyle World Cup. Luca was just 0.5 of a point off the podium in the heavily stacked competition.
These exceptional results saw Luca awarded the Snow Sports New Zealand Freeski Athlete of the Year in 2023.
