Lisa Carrington

Lisa Carrington (born June 23, 1989, Tauranga, New Zealand) is the most decorated New Zealand Olympian, having won six Olympic medals—five gold and one bronze—as a canoe sprint racer specializing in 200- and 500-meter races in a kayak. Carrington is also the first Māori woman to win an Olympic gold medal.

Early life

Carrington is of Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki and Ngāti Porou descent, the daughter of Pat and Glynis Carrington. She was born in Tauranga, on the North Island of New Zealand, but, when she was eight years old, she moved east along the coast to Ōhope with her family, which includes two elder brothers, Shaun and Brett. She grew up swimming and competing in netball, a popular game in girls’ schools in England and other British Commonwealth countries, similar to six-player girls’ basketball in the United States. Carrington also participated in competitive surf lifesaving, which features beach rescue events such as swimming, sand running, and surf skiing, a sport that uses a surf ski, a long, narrow, lightweight kayak made for racing.

Training and education

Carrington developed a great love for surf skiing and about age 14 began to focus primarily on the sport, often using a regular kayak during training. She soon decided to concentrate on kayaking as an avenue to reach the Olympics since surf skiing is not an Olympic event. Carrington began racing with the Eastern Bay Canoe Racing Club in nearby Whakatāne and took lessons from Olympic gold medalist kayaker Ian Ferguson. As she was establishing her athletic career, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in politics and Māori studies and then a graduate diploma in psychology from New Zealand’s Massey University.

Early competitions

Carrington’s first international kayaking competition was the 2007 Australian Youth Olympic Festival in Sydney. Although Carrington did not win any medals, she gained experience in the singles kayak (K1) and doubles kayak (K2) 500- and 1,000-meter sprint events. In 2009 she teamed with fellow Kiwi Teneale Hatton at the International Canoe Federation (ICF) World Cup in Szeged, Hungary. They won a bronze medal in the K2 1,000-meter sprint. The duo continued their success the next year, winning the gold medal in the 1,000-meter sprint at the World Cup in Vichy, France, and three gold medals at the Oceania Canoe Championships in Sydney.

At the 2011 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships, Carrington won the gold medal in the K1 200-meter sprint. It was the first time a New Zealand woman won the event in a world championship. Carrington and partner Erin Taylor placed ninth in the K2 500-meter sprint. Both of these showings qualified them for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Before the Olympics took place, however, the pair competed in the 2012 Oceania Championship in Sydney. Carrington won the gold medal in the K1 200-meter event and, with Taylor, the gold medal in the K2 200-meter event.

2012 Olympic Games and competitions in the early 2010s

Carrington did not disappoint her coaches and fans at the 2012 Olympic Games. She won the gold medal in the inaugural K1 200-meter sprint, finishing with a time of 44.638 sec. Carrington and Taylor missed the medal standings in the K2 500-meter sprint, placing seventh. Carrington’s success, however, continued into 2013. That year she won gold medals in the K1 200-meter and 500-meter events at the three World Cups, held in Szeged, Hungary; Racice, Czech Republic; and Poznań, Poland. At the world championships in Duisberg, Germany, later that year she won the gold medal in the 200-meter sprint and the bronze medal in the 500-meter race. In 2014 she participated in two World Cups, held in Milan and Racice, winning two golds in the K1 200-meter and one gold and one bronze in the K1 500-meter. At the world championships in Moscow that year, she won gold in the K1 200-meter and silver in the K1 500-meter. Her record in 2015 was even more impressive—golds in every World Cup event she entered as well as every race she participated in at the world championships held in Milan.

2016 Olympic Games and competitions in the late 2010s

In the run-up to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Carrington competed in two of three World Cups. In Duisberg she earned the gold medal in the K1 200-meter sprint and the silver medal in the K1 500-meter event. In Montemor, Portugal, she earned gold medals in both the 200- and 500-meter events. At the Olympics she won the gold medal in the 200-meter with a time of 39.864 sec. She also won the bronze medal in the 500-meter sprint.

Beginning in 2017 Carrington began to compete in more K2 sprints and added K4 (with a crew of four) 500-meter events. That year she won the gold medal in the K2 200-meter and 500-meter and the K4 500-meter at the World Cup in Montemor and the gold in the K2 500-meter and the K4 500-meter at the World Cup in Szeged. At the world championships in Racice, she won the gold in the K2 500-meter and the K4 500-meter. In 2018 Carrington participated in two World Cups, winning back-to-back gold medals in the K2 200-meter, K2 500-meter, and K4 500-meter events. She also kept up her solo racing. At the 2019 World Cup in Poznań, she won gold medals in the K1 200- and 500-meter races as well as the K4 500-meter sprint. At that year’s world championships in Szeged she placed fourth in the K4 500-meter but won gold medals in the K1 200- and 500-meter events.

2020 Olympic Games and competitions in the early 2020s

Carrington’s performance at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo—which were postponed until 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic—cemented her status as “the GOAT [greatest of all time] in the boat,” as the New Zealand Herald called her. Carrington won the K1 200-meter sprint with a time of 38.120 sec. The win made her the first New Zealander to receive a gold medal in the same event in three successive Olympics. She also won the K1 500-meter sprint. She partnered with Caitlin Regal, and the duo earned the gold medal in the K2 500-meter race. In the K4 500-meter race, Carrington and her teammates finished in fourth, just off the medal platform. Nonetheless, by the end of her third Summer Olympic Games appearance, she had garnered six medals—five of them gold—surpassing New Zealand Olympic champions Ferguson (four gold medals and one silver in the canoe sprint), Paul MacDonald (three gold medals, one silver, and one bronze in the canoe sprint), and Mark Todd (two gold, one silver, and three bronze medals in equestrian eventing) to become the New Zealander with the most gold medals.

After her victorious showing at the 2020 Olympics, Carrington continued to compete. At the world championships she won gold medals back-to-back in 2022 and 2023 in the K1 200-meter sprint and the K1 500-meter race. Also in 2023 she won her first gold medal in the K4 500-meter sprint, with teammates Alicia Hoskin, Olivia Brett, and Tara Vaughan. They were the first New Zealand K4 team to win the world championships.

Honors and marriage

Carrington earned many honors during her career. For her services to the sport of kayaking, she was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2013 New Year’s Honours. She was promoted to Dame Companion in the 2022 New Year’s Honours. That same year she married her longtime boyfriend, Michael Buck.