Lisa inspired by Loader
Double Olympic champion Carrington gets urge to go for gold after watching outstanding NZ swimmer on TV
The six-year-old lay sprawled on the living room floor watching Danyon Loader win one of his swimming gold medals at the Atlanta Olympics 20 years ago.
Dad turned to his daughter: “You could do that one day. If you put your mind to it, you can go.”
It resonated with little Lisa Carrington, the seed was planted and yesterday, with father Pat watching in the stands, she not only won gold but became one of only 13 New Zealanders to have nailed back-toback Olympic titles.
And early today she was going through her heat and semifinals in the K1 500m in a bid to back up yesterday with a second gold in tonight’s final.
Barring a major surprise, Carrington will duel with Hungarian multimedallist Danuta Kozak as the leading contenders for that gold.
Since Loader’s triumph, Carrington has watched the likes of Hamish Carter, Sarah Ulmer, the Evers- 2004-08: 2008-12: 20012-16: 2012-16: rowing 2012-16: Lisa Carrington, canoeing Swindell twins and, in 2008, Val Adams win Olympic gold.
“It’s cool. I just think it’s awesome seeing Kiwis do well,” Carrington once said.
Four years ago Carrington joined the elite in London, and yesterday put an extra burnish on her CV in the K1 200m final, the event she’s dominated, and is unbeaten in, since winning the world title in Hungary in 2011.
Carrington got into kayaking, like so many paddlers before her, from surf lifesaving. The Whakatane teenager joined the local surf club before switching to Mt Maunganui. One thing led to another and kayaking Thursday, AugustAugus 18, 2016 took over, to stunning effect.
Her gold yesterday was New Zealand’s third in Rio, and was quickly followed by confirmation that 49er sailors Peter Burling and Blair Tuke could not be headed and had nailed their gold medal. But for Carrington, there was a sense of a job still only half done.
Yesterday, Carrington won in 39.864 seconds, from her Polish rival Marta Walczykiewicz (40.279s) and Azerbaijan’s Inna OsipenkoRodomska, the silver medallist in London four years ago (40.401s).
Usually a composed young