Luka Riley

Position:
Nordic
Height:
6-4
Class:
Senior
Hometown:
Boulder, Colo.
High School:
Fairview
Prev School:
Boulder Junior Nordic

Three-Time National All-Academic Ski Team (2023, '24, '25; 3.5 Cumulative GPA)
Sophomore Scholar-Athlete Award (2024)
Junior Scholar-Athlete Award (2025)
Pac-12 Honor Roll (2024)
CSC Academic All-District (2025)
Three-time CU 4.0 Club (2023, '24, '25)
Three-Year Letterwinner (2023, '24, '25)

At Colorado: Career—The epitome of a STUDENT-Athlete, Riley enters his fourth year on the CU ski team coming off his best season in 2025. He has finished all 23 races he’s started at CU with 14 in the top 20 and four in the top 10 including one top-five performance. In the classroom, he’s one of, if not the, top performing student among all student-athletes at CU.

2025 (Junior)—Riley returned to the trails in 2025 as a junior after missing a good majority of his sophomore season and had a solid season that included his first four top 10 finishes and first top five finish of his career. He began the year with a solid showing at the UAA Invitational, of which results were pulled from the US National Championships. Among RMISA Skiers, he was ninth in the 10K freestyle and eighth in the 20K classic, his best career finish in both disciplines and first two top 10s. He finished all 12 races leading up to the NCAA Championships, 10 in the top 20 and he also closed out his season on a solid note back in Alaska where the season began, he had his career best finish of fourth in the 10K freestyle at the UAF Invitational and then took 10th in the 20K freestyle and 11th in the 7.5K classic race at the RMISA Championships. He remained rock solid in the classroom, as well, earning the schools Junior Scholar-Athlete Award for having the top cumulative GPA among all junior student-athletes, and he was also a member of CU’s 4.0 Club, named CSC Academic All-District and to the National All-Academic Ski Team.

2024 (Sophomore)—Riley had a tough sophomore season in which he started just three races and was on the starting list for four more before not racing the final race of the regular season and RMISA Championships. He placed between 21st and 26th in those three races he finished. One of the top academic student-athletes at CU, he earned the Sophomore Scholar-Athlete Award as the top GPA of any student-athlete in their sophomore year, was on the CU 4.0 Club, named to the National All-Academic Ski Team and the Pac-12 Winter Honor Roll.

2023 (Freshman)—Riley had a solid first season as a Buff, missing the middle part of the season while competing for the US at the Junior World Championships. He finished all eight races he participated in with four top 20 finishes, three of the four coming in freestyle races. He had three top 16 finishes in his first four races at the US National Championships and Montana State Invitational before missing the CU and DU meets. He rebounded in Alaska with one top 20, taking 17th in the 10K classic race as part of the UAA Invitational. He lettered for the Buffs and also got it done in the classroom by making the 4.0 Club for CU and earning a spot on the National All-Academic Ski Team, as well.

Prior To College—He skied for Boulder Nordic from 2018-22 and also skied with Rocky Mountain Nordic. For Boulder Nordic, he holds the team record on the 3K time trials. He had two top 10 finishes at the Junior National Championships in 2022, taking sixth in the 10K freestyle and seventh in the 15K classic race.

High School—He graduated from Fairview High School in Boulder, Colo., in 2022.

In The Classroom—He is majoring in Integrative Physiology at Colorado. In high school, he earned an outstanding performance award in Spanish 4.

Personal—Luka Riley was born Dec. 6, 2003, in Anchorage, Alaska and calls Boulder his hometown. His parents are Peter Riley and Marinka Kartalija, his dad is a critical care and pulmonary physician and his mom is an infectious diseases physician. He has one younger sister, Martina, who races with Team Summit. He says growing up in a medical household has made him fascinated with pursuing a degree in the scientific field. Hopes to go into research in the medical field after his skiing days are done. He likes to play guitar, mountain bike, play th keyboard, climb and downhill ski in his free time. He can speak Croatian. He taught kite-boarding during the summer. He has volunteered helping build the trail system around Boulder.

Why Colorado?—”I've lived in Boulder for the past 4 years and I love the location and the culture of Boulder. Having great trails and roads nearby has made this town a training haven.”