How the language of Lisa Carrington's Māori heritage guides the five-time Olympic gold medallist
The Aotearoa (New Zealand) athlete peppers her Instagram posts with language from her Māori heritage, just one important part of the superstar sprint kayaker's make-up that leads to unprecedented success in her chosen sport.
Are you a good loser?
This is the question Olympics.com asked five-time Olympic gold medallist and 12-time world champion Lisa Carrington, ahead of the 2023 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships taking place in Duisburg, Germany from 23-27 August. The championship doubles as a Paris 2024 Olympic qualifier with 162 quotas set to be awarded to the National Olympic Committees of the top-ranked athletes in the kayak and canoe Olympic disciplines.
There was a reason for the question.
At five years old, Carrington's mum wanted her daughter to take up sport in order to learn how to be a good winner, and a good loser.
So, we wanted to know if it had worked. Is someone who has dominated Olympics and world championships in sprint kayak, a good loser?
"Probably not," says the the New Zealander, who is speaking from her hotel room in Germany waiting for her missing luggage to arrive, ruing the fact her competition kit is in said bag with the worlds starting in two days' time.
"I think that's what's so amazing about sport, is that you have to keep turning up no matter what happens, and with sport there is always a winner and there is always a loser. So, I think you have to kind of accept that when you step onto your field or into the ring or wherever you're competing ground is – today, someone will win, someone will lose.
"I guess that's why it's so important. I think it's such a nice philosophy for life that it's not all fair and that's just the way it is, and that's okay."
Lisa Carrington's relaxed formative years
Carrington hasn't had much of a chance to explore the losing side of that philosophy as she continues to cement her legend status in her sport and beyond.
At Tokyo 2020, Carrington became the most successful New Zealand Olympian of all time having added three gold medals in the K1 200m and 500m, and K2 500m to her tally. The K1 200m gold (the 'K' represents 'kayak' the '1', a single athlete) secured an incredible three consecutive titles in the discipline having also won at London 2012 and Rio 2016.
With such a haul of medals, you'd think Carrington might have had a super competitive start in life. Not so.
When the family moved to the beach, her parents wanted Carrington and her two older brothers to be safe in the ocean so they became nippers, young surf life savers. Their coach, an important part of Carrington's early development, just wanted the kids to have fun, learn to be safe, and enjoy the water with their friends.
At school, meanwhile, Carrington's mum wanted her to take up sport, not necessarily to win anything, but to help with her young daughter's confidence.
So bearing in mind Carrington's formative years of a rather less than pressured environment, where exactly has her competitive nature come from?
"I think that's probably a question for the philosophers or the psychologists," laughs Carrington. "I don't know. Is it nature? Nurture?
"I didn't want to do (sport, initially) in case I couldn't do it and knowing that I really wanted to do well. I think being competitive, it's something that I've more and more accepted about myself as I've been in sport longer, that I really love the racing and the competing, particularly with myself and trying to just do everything I can to be better.
"So, I think whether it's always been within me, I think it's just fun being able to be competitive and see what you've got, use competition to get the best out of myself."
Tiger Woods' quote, “No matter how good you get, you can always get better, and that's the exciting part”, has made an appearance on Carrington's Instagram page, giving an insight into how someone with so much success keeps motivating themselves.
Success for the now 34-year-old newly married Carrington means wringing every bit of success she can out of herself and with that in mind, she's eyeing a fourth Olympic Games, at Paris 2024.
"Someone said to me something like, you don't want to leave or finish the sport with music still in you.
"I would love to finish the sport having done everything I could. I don't know whether or not Paris will be my last one, but I guess you have to treat it that way every time I go out there. It's a privilege to do sport, to even get out there and say, how lucky are we to play a game for a living."
Lisa Carrington's Māori roots
While Carrington considers her sporting limits, a heightened focus on her Māori roots has become an increasingly important part of her personal journey.
"My dad is Māori and my mum is – we say Pakeha in New Zealand – so she has English heritage," she told Olympics.com. "Everyone has a unique history, and I just really am diving into and understanding my own."
The 2022 women's Rugby World Cup hosted in Aotearoa (New Zealand) saw Māori culture embedded throughout. Not just the iconic pre-game haka but with the likes of thousands of Poi (swinging tethered weights through a variety of rhythmical and geometric patterns) becoming the symbol to the World Cup, the stadium announcer greeting everyone in te reo Māori (the Māori language), and the Māori anthem sung before the game.
Just last week, New Zealand also co-hosted the women's football World Cup with Australia, in a tournament that broke records both on and off the pitch. The 42,137 fans who watched New Zealand's opener – a feel-good 1-0 win over Norway – represented the biggest crowd in the country's football history, men's or women's, and more than one million New Zealanders also tuned in to see their side triumph over the Scandinavians.
Both tournaments were defining moments, says Carrington.
"I think what's amazing is just having two consecutive, awesome female events held, and maybe in New Zealand, when we got behind the rugby World Cup, I think it really helped us engage in the football World Cup as well.
"Rugby is our biggest sport, so for us to recognise football is huge and it's worldwide so it was a really cool thing."
But it was the Black Ferns win in the final of the women's Rugby World Cup on home soil that had Carrington celebrating with an emotional Instagram message.
"Thank you wāhine toa (warrior woman) for inspiring us on your journey. I am in awe of your strength and courage to perform and to be fiercely yourselves. You inspire me.... nga mihi nui (thank you) ❤"
Pretty sure they'd say the same to you, Lisa.