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Full Noise by SN
Join our Fantasy SRP leagueKiwi freeskier Harrington earns bronze medal at Winter Olympics
Sport Nation • February 11th, 2026 8:05 am
Luca Harrington | Photo: Photosport
Kiwi Luca Harrington has added another Winter Olympics medal to the New Zealand team, tally, clinching bronze in the men's freeski slopestyle on Wednesday (NZ time).
After a pair of dicey opening runs in tough conditions, the Wanaka product - competing at his first Olympics - nailed his third run to move eight places up the leaderboard into third.
The 21-year-old then waited nervously for the six remaining competitors but none were able to top his final score of 85.15.
Teammate Ben Barclay was among those, but was unable to better his first run score of 69.40.
Harrington's efforts ensured consecutive days on the podium for the New Zealand team, after Zoi Sadowski-Synnott earned silver in the women's snowboard big air.
“This has been a childhood dream. I didn’t think I was going to make it happen after those first two runs," Harrington said afterwards.
“I stood at the top of that last run and I put a smile on my face and just embraced what an honour it was to be standing up there with my fellow athletes and of course my teammate.
“I didn’t want to play it safe. I wanted to leave it all out there and I did that and to believe I’m wearing an Olympic bronze medal right now is pretty surreal.”
Norway's Birk Ruud claimed gold with a best score of 86.28, with American Alex Hall taking silver (85.75).
The medal was New Zealand's eighth in Winter Olympics history.
Harrington's achievement comes on the back of an impressive build-up to the Games, having won big air silver and slopestyle gold at last month's Winter X Games in 2025, which he added to the gold he won at last year's X-Games in the same event.
He also won gold at last year's freeski world championships in the big air.
