Lisa Carrington

EVENTS: Women's K4 500m, K2 500m, K1 200, K1 500

Kayaker Dame Lisa Carrington is New Zealand's most successful Olympian, having won a staggering nine Olympic medals (eight gold, one bronze) over four Games.

Dame Lisa, born in Tauranga in 1989 and raised at Ohope Beach, first revealed herself as something special in 2009, when she won a bronze medal at the World Cup regatta in Szeged, Hungary, competing with Teneale Hatton in the K2 1000 event. In 2010 the pair won the gold medal in the same event at a World Cup regatta in Vichy, France. Dame Lisa then began working with coach Gordon Walker in 2010, the beginning of a hugely successful partnership.

Dame Lisa really burst through at the 2011 world canoe sprint championships in Szeged. She won the gold medal in the women’s K1 200, the first New Zealand woman to win a canoeing world title.

At the London Olympics the following year, Dame Lisa won the K1 200 in supreme style. In the final she beat Inny Osypenko of Ukraine to win the gold medal by nearly half a second.

At the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, she won her K1 200 heat, semi-final and final without ever looking pushed. Her winning time of 39.864s gave her victory in the final by half a second over Poland’s Marta Walczykiewicz.

Also at Rio, Dame Lisa lined up in the K1 500, a sprinter turning to a middle-distance event. She was good enough to win the bronze medal, pipped on the line for the silver by Emma Jørgensen of Denmark.

At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Dame Lisa was even more outstanding. She again won her heat, semi-final and final in the K1 200, winning the final by an even wider margin than previously – her Olympic record time of 38.120s gave her a margin of 0.763s over Spaniard Teresa Portela.

Carrington also won the K1 500, and by a big margin, showing she had maintained her sensational speed but had now added the endurance of a longer-distance athlete. She again won her heat, semi-final and final.

Carrington lined up with Caitlin Regal in the K2 500 final on the same day she won her K1 200 gold medal. Fears that her heavy workload may sap her strength proved unfounded. The New Zealanders scooped the heat, semi-final and final in the K2 500 and beat the Polish silver medallists by a full second in the final.

It could never be said that Carrington shies away from hard work. In Tokyo she also lined up in the New Zealand K4 500 boat with Alicia Hoskin, Regal and Teneale Hatton. After finishing second in their heat and in their semi-final, the New Zealanders were nudged off the podium by Poland and had to settle for fourth place in the final.

At Paris 2024, Dame Lisa was again unstoppable. In the K4 she teamed up with Olivia Brett, Alicia Hosking and Tara Vaughan. The quartet edging Germany by 0.42s to win gold. It was New Zealand’s first ever Olympic medal in the women’s K4.

Racing the K2 with crewmate Alicia Hoskin, the pair were simply a cut above. Finishing far ahead of the rest of the field for a comfortable gold medal.

Finally, in the K1, Dame Lisa sat in second as the boats shot out, with Hungarian Tamara Csipes taking the lead. Slightly behind at the 250m mark, Dame Lisa found another gear to surge ahead in the second leg. The kayaking queen powering to the finish in 1:47.38, taking the triple in Paris to back up the hat-trick in Tokyo.

Carrington has been equally brilliant at world championships. Since 2011 she has won her specialty event, the K1 200, nine times. At world championships, she’s also won the K1 500 four times, the K2 500 once and the K4 500 once. Rather than struggling with age, she’s become even more unbeatable – at the 2023 world champs in Duisburg, she scooped the K1 200, the K1 500 and the K4 500. She has also won five world championship silvers and two bronzes, and is undeniably the dominant figure in world kayaking.

Little wonder she has been honoured in all sorts of ways at home. In 2022 she became Dame Lisa when she was promoted to Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

She has been the Sportswoman of the Year six times at the Halberg Awards and won the Halberg Supreme award in 2016, 2021 and 2023. She has been a finalist in the Sportswoman of the Year category 12 times. Dame Lisa was named Sportswoman of the Decade 2010-2019. Her long-time coach, Gordon Walker, has been Halberg Coach of the Year five times and was named Coach of the Decade. Dame Lisa has won the NZOC’s Lonsdale Cup three times. 

She was recently awarded one of the Olympic movement’s highest honours, receiving the ANOC Outstanding Sporting Career Award. This award recognises Dame Lisa’s career to date, and fittingly it comes in another dominant year in which she claimed three gold medals at the Paris Olympic Games (K4, K2, K1). 

Dame Lisa, who is of Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki and Ngati Porou, as well as European descent, was in 2021 named the most influential Maori sports personality of the past 30 years on the TV programme Maori Sports Awards 30 in 30. She has featured prominently in the Maori sports awards since 2011.

Dame Lisa has a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in politics and Maori studies, and a graduate Diploma in psychology.