There’s no shortage of amazing things New Zealanders have done over the years. They gave rights to rivers, they reinvented comic book movies (thank you Taika Waititi), and one of their own—Sir Edmund Hillary—was the first to stand on top of Mountain Everest, right next to Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. It’s clear Kiwis have a bit of a fixation with achievement, and so it is with freeskier Craig Murray, who was breaking mountain running records back when he was 15.

Now in his mid-20s, Murray is a veteran of the Freeride World Tour (FWT), having crushed the competition as a junior and graduated to the big leagues with startling momentum. He now makes frequent appearances on the podium and has a bag full of wins to his credit. He’s also the first crossover athlete from the FWT to make it into the Enduro World Series of mountain biking as well, while likewise competing in grueling multi-day adventure races on the side.

In addition to the prestige that has followed his appearances in films by Matchstick Productions, Craig was also honored to become the ASB Otago Sportsman of the Year in 2020, rising from a fringe sport to the same acclaim as his country’s greatest rugby players and Olympians. At the end of the day, he says his sister is still cooler than he is—the humble stamp of a true Kiwi.

Achievements:

• Four-time NZ Freerider of the Year
• Youngest person to climb and ski Tititea and Aoraki
• 2016 Junior FWT Champion
• 2017 First place Obergurgl-Hochgurgl 4* FWQ
• 2017 First place Hochfugen 4* FWQ
• 2018 Second place FWT Vallnord-Arcalis, Andorra
• 2018 Second place FWT Final Verbier, Switzerland
• 2019 First place FWT Kicking Horse Golden, Canada
• 2020 Otago Sportsman of the Year Award
• 2020, First place FWT Fieberbrunn, Austria
• Produced ski films Highway Seventy Three and Terra Incognita2024
• Enduro MTB world cup race - 16th
• 2025 Natural Selection Ski Champion
• 2025 Skier of the year