Eight-time Olympic champion Lisa Carrington signs off on memorable year of "extreme pressure and extreme happiness"
Now a children's book author, the record-breaking sprint kayaker shared her anti-stress secrets - including journaling, meditation, and counting strokes – with Olympics.com.
Canoe Sprint
Lisa Carrington has a simple New Year’s resolution: to keep things exciting and enjoy every moment.
After the 2024 she had, it is not surprising that having fun is a key priority for the record-breaking New Zealand kayaker.
Carrington achieved a clean sweep of three gold medals at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 to add to the five gold medals she won at three previous Games – one each at London 2012 and Rio 2016, and three at Tokyo 2020.
“My 2024 year in just one sentence would be extreme pressure and extreme happiness,” Carrington summed up with a smile.
Extreme pressure is a feeling Carrington knows all too well. Dubbed “the GOAT in the boat”, she became the most decorated New Zealand Olympian when she won her third gold medal at Tokyo 2020 in the K1 500m event. While the high expectations placed upon her were tough to handle in the lead-up to Paris 2024, Carrington has discovered tools to help her thrive even under the most intense conditions.
Olympics.com spoke to the record breaker about what helped her to tame those nerves, the creative way she chose to pass down the lessons picked up from kayaking, and her next target.
Lisa Carrington’s anti-stress tools for a memorable Olympic year
A K1 race lasts about one minute and 50 seconds with a K2 race 10 seconds shorter and a K4 10 seconds shorter still.
These fleeting moments are how long Lisa Carrington has to turn years of training into a tangible result, with each second counting and increasing the pressure to win. This pressure reached its maximum before Paris 2024 where she found herself tasked with matching her Tokyo 2020 golden triple.
“Because we aimed and wanted to compete in the three events and we wanted to do really well and win, the expectation was really high," Carrington said. "So for me, there was a point where I found the pressure was a lot and it crept up and it became really challenging to realise that maybe we won't be able to win. Once I figured out how to free myself of expectation, I started to enjoy it a bit more.”
Instead of focusing on the expectations placed on her, Carrington chose to home in on the reasons she started kayaking in the first place.
She took up the sport at age 17 to improve her surf ski skills, a sport her brothers also did competitively, and competed in the sprint discipline at the national championships later the same year, in 2006. While Carrington made consistent progress over the following seasons, it was not until she won her first world title at the 2011 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships that she realised she could turn kayaking into a career.
“I started the sport not thinking that it was something more than what I love rather than doing it to make money,” she recalled. “I never thought that I could be a professional athlete. I didn't think I could earn a living doing this.
“I wanted to just be an Olympian," she continued. "(To) have done four Olympics, eight gold medals, that's something I never dreamed of.”
Carrington took this attitude of gratitude into her fourth Olympic Games. She also developed several habits to help reduce the stress ahead of Paris 2024. Journaling, meditation and visualisation were among her main go-tos, as was spending time with her husband and team to gain perspective on her self-worth off the water.
When it came to competition day itself, Carrington worked these calming techniques into her race-time routine.
“To have tools that help calm me down is really important," she said. “Before going into the gates, it's about being calm and – because our boats are really unstable – deep breaths and just getting your weight right down low into your core and then dropping your shoulders and relaxing.
“I have a race plan, so I take it out, take my first stroke and make sure it's really good. And then I count the strokes until 15 doubles or 15 strokes. And from there just trying to make the boat run really well and glide and with good technique and following the plan."
From athlete to author: Lisa Carrington swaps a paddle for a pen
With nine Olympic medals and 15 world titles to her name, Carrington now wants to share what she learned along her nearly two-decade journey in kayaking with others.
She released a children's book called "Lisa Carrington Chases a Champion" on 30 September, less than two months after capping off her Paris 2024 golden sweep.
Illustrated by Scott Pearson, the book tells the story of an eight-year-old Lisa from Whakatane, New Zealand who wants to compete in a big surf competition but is afraid to fail. Encouraging words from her coach, family, and a champion paddler help the young girl to gain confidence and overcome her fears ahead of competition day.
“It's a beautiful book and it's based on where I grew up, in my hometown, and it has my parents and my coach and my dog (as characters),” Carrington said. “It's fiction, but it's based on real people and some things that I've learned along the way.”
The book also comes in a Maori language edition – a nod to Carrington’s indigenous background. In addition to being New Zealand's most decorated Olympian, Carrington holds the distinction of being the first Maori woman to win an Olympic gold medal.
“I have always wanted to write a children's book,” she said. “I wasn't quite ready to write a biography and I think, in sport, you have so many lessons and I wanted to be able to share them with children. I just want to be able to give them some kind of advice or support that would have really helped me when I was their age.”
Lisa Carrington paddles into 2025
At 35 years old, Carrington has every title an athlete could ever dream of – Olympic champion, world champion, Dame - to name just a few.
For the Kiwi record breaker, however, sporting glory is a never-ending pursuit, which is why she is still unsure whether Paris 2024 will be the end of her Olympic journey.
“There is always more, I think, in sport. I haven't decided whether I'll continue, but I think that you can't be limited by thinking that a gold medal, it's the best thing you'll ever get," Carrington revealed. "The best thing that you can ever get is experiencing the journey and what you learn along the way. And for me, making sure that I learn and I grow and really love the journey of performing and reaching something that you didn't believe you could do, that's really rewarding, so I'd say there's so much more to achieve.”
Carrington said she will decide whether to continue in the sport by weighing up how much she still enjoys the process and checking whether her sporting goals match what she wants to accomplish next on a personal level.
“It's just working out if it's right for me, if I still can achieve my goals as a person, not just as an athlete,” she said.
“I have my goals or my vision. It helps me turn up every day. For me, it's around being better, being a better human, pushing myself physically, helping others. I think when you have a vision or a goal like that, it makes it really easy to get up and using sport to do it.”