Abi's Story
Fast Facts
Sport: Freestyle Skiing
Events: Halfpipe
Olympic History: Beijing 2022
Highlights: Representing Australia at Lausanne 2020 and Beijing 2022
Coach: Leon Tarbotton
Year Born: 2002
State Born: ACT
About Abi
A product of the Snowy Mountains and Jindabyne Primary School, Abi Harrigan was on skis at age two.
By 10 she was chasing her brothers down the hill, jumping on or over objects that got bigger and higher as they tried to out-do each other… a freestyle skier in the making.
Abi’s first International Ski Federation sanctioned events, at age 15, were also her first two podiums.
She won the halfpipe and slopestyle gold medals in the Australian National Junior Championships at Perisher in August 2017. Two months later she won the same events in Cardrona at the New Zealand Junior Championships.
Abi backed that up by winning the slopestyle gold again at both the 2018 Australian and New Zealand titles a year later. Her World Cup debut was in September 2019, which she ended in 18th for the halfpipe back at Cardrona.
With the Tasman area well-covered, it was time for Abi to head overseas and compete as part of the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics in Switzerland. She finished 12th in the slopestyle, 10th in the halfpipe and 15th in the big air.
Abi followed that with silver in big air at the European Cup in Davos, Switzerland.
A year later and she had another podium finish – bronze in slopestyle at Innsbruck – which put Abi in strong form heading into the 2021 World Championships at Aspen in March. She enjoyed top-20 finishes in two events; 13th in slopestyle and 18th in big air.
Two of her best World Cup results in slopestyle came just before Beijing 2022 - 15th at Mammoth Mountain, USA and 13th at Font Romeu, France – both in January 2022.
By the time Abi got to the Olympics, a stress fracture to her fibula was a major disruption for her schedule and ability to perform.
She was forced to withdraw from the free ski big air and halfpipe, but did take part in the slopestyle and finished 26th.
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