Adrian Costa grew up in Falls Creek and skiing always dominated the attention of the Costa family. Young Adrian followed in the tracks of his sibilings - his older brother Paul is a fellow Olympian - and started skiing, at the age of three, on the steep driveway in front of the apartment building where they were living at the time. Skiing was also part of the curriculum at the local school, so by the age of six Adrian was already interested in ski racing and would enter local kids competitions. 

Mrs Costa would give his son the $2 participation fee to rock up and enter Nastar competitions with the rest of the Falls Creek tourists most weeks. After a couple of seasons of bronzes and silvers, Adrian had his first breakthrough moment, getting a Nastar gold when he was nine. 

In Falls Creek, at the time, moguls skiing was what young kids did for fun after race training and Adrian took full advantage of ‘The Summit’ - a skiing venue famous for having the perfect pitch and fall line for a moguls course. The Summit was also the venue for the annual Summit Masters moguls event, the brain child of Lynne Grosse which ran from 1985 to 1995. Costa started competing in moguls around age 16 and ‘specialised’ two years later.

He then spent his first year out of high school in Colorado, competing on the local tour. The level and depth of talent was a real eye opener and allowed Costa to achieve significant improvements.  At the end of that year he convinced his parents to travel to France and subsequently enter the 1991 International Youth Championships in Le Sauze, where he finished second.

After his first Winter Olympics selection, in 1992, Costa went on to participate in three more Olympic Winter Games. In 2002, at the Salt Lake City Olympic Games, he became the first Australian winter sport four-time Olympian, along Zali Steggall. 

Salt Lake was also Costa’ final appearance at the Olympic Games. In that occasion he had the honour to carry the Australian Flag in the Opening Ceremony, an event that Costa considers one of the best moments in his career.

In total, Costa made 126 World Cup starts between 1991 and 2003, placing 31 times in the top-10 and seven times in the top-5. In 1998 at Chatel (FRA) he finished second in the Dual Moguls World Cup event and made history by winning the first World Cup medal for Australia in the discipline. 

He also competed in five Freestyle Skiing World Championships, his best result being a 6th place in the Dual Moguls in Whistler (CAN), in 2001. 

After retiring from ski racing, Costa coached three-time Olympian Britt Cox at Falls Creek, when she was a young athlete. He’s a father of two and now a principal at an award-winning architectural practice in Melbourne.