Carrington’s greatness grows At a glance
So many of New Zealand’s greatest sportspeople have made their mark while seated. So where does Lisa Carrington sit among our lofty list of leading individual Olympians?
It’s conceivable that the canoe sprint champion will become our most prolific Olympic medal-winner at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The 29-year-old finished the 2018 world championships in Portugal with four medals from as many events – gold in her specialist women’s K1 200m event and silver in the K1 500, K2 500 and K4
500.
It could have easily been more impressive – Carrington missed gold by
0.010sec in the K4, 0.023sec in the K2 and
0.73sec in the K1 500. Effectively, she was one second off winning four gold.
So that augurs fantastically well for Tokyo, where the power-packed paddler will look to add to her Olympic medal haul of two gold and one silver.
Four events may be too many for Carrington to tackle and be at her absolute best at the pinnacle of the sport in two years’ time – it may prove that one less event may be the difference in those fractions of seconds between gold and silver.
But her results and performances in Portugal would have been encouraging for coach Gordon Walker as he plans ahead. The taxing programme didn’t dull Carrington’s lustre in her specialist event – she won her sixth successive world championship gold in the K1 200 event, finishing almost two canoe lengths ahead of her nearest challengers to remain unbeaten in the final of the K1 200 at elite level since 2011.
So with history and a little projection to consider, Carrington climbs into the top 10 of our greatest individual Olympians.
Her three Olympic medals are the same haul as Peter Snell, Valerie Adams, My Top 10 NZ Olympians (individuals only): 1 Peter Snell, 2 Sir Mark Todd, 3 Valerie Adams, 4 Danyon Loader, 5 Barbara Kendall, 6 Mahe Drysdale, 7 Lisa Carrington, 8 Nick Willis, 9 Yvette Williams, 10 Ian Ferguson/Paul MacDonald.
Mahe Drysdale, Barbara Kendall and Danyon Loader.
Our most prolific Olympic medallist is Mark Todd. The veteran equestrian has six Games gongs – three individual eventing and three team eventing medals – while Blyth Tait has four, also split evenly between individual and team honours.
The Kiwi superstar paddlers of the 1980s, Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald, have five Olympic medals apiece, with one individual medal each.
Like that fantastic duo, Carrington has career longevity as another asset, while her dominance in her specialist event sets her apart.
At present, her record at the highest level puts her in the top 10. You heavily suspect in another two years the debate will be around what spot in the top five she should occupy – with No 1 within her reach.