Rachael Karker

Biography

Rachael Karker made her Olympic debut at Beijing 2022 where she won the bronze medal in the women’s ski halfpipe event, sharing the podium with silver medallist teammate Cassie Sharpe. They produced one of two double podiums for Team Canada at Beijing 2022.

Karker won ski halfpipe silver at the 2021 FIS World Championships, two years after just missing the podium with her fourth-place finish in her debut in 2019. She is also a three-time medallist at the Winter X Games in Aspen, earning bronze in her debut in 2019, silver in 2020, and bronze in 2021. 

The 2018-19 season had been a breakthrough one for Karker. She earned her first career World Cup podium in Secret Garden, China in December and added a second silver in Calgary in February. She placed fourth in two other events to finish second in the overall World Cup ski halfpipe standings. 

She kept the momentum going in 2019-20, making the podium in all four World Cup events she entered. She repeated as the silver medallist in Secret Garden and Calgary and added bronze medals at Copper Mountain and Mammoth Mountain. She again finished second overall in the World Cup halfpipe standings. 

During the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season, Karker earned her first career World Cup victory in the only halfpipe event of the season. 

Karker made her World Cup debut during the 2015-16 season. In 2016 she was awarded the Association of Freeskiing Professionals Overall Junior Championships title. It was the result of a successful season that saw her win the AFP Women’s Junior Halfpipe title. She also finished third overall in the Nor-Am Cup halfpipe standings.  

A Little More About Rachael

Getting into the Sport: Learned to ski at age 2 and was eventually put in race programs with her brothers… Left skiing at age 10 to compete in artistic gymnastics and then trampoline… At 14, one of her brothers introduced her to park skiing and she took up slopestyle skiing before focusing on halfpipe…