Lisa's Olympic dream ‘I'm in it for love – not medals!'

Our canoeing golden girl Lisa Carrington talks to Emma Clifton about being newly engaged, what drives her remarkable success and her Tokyo goals.

- Lisa Carrington

If the relentless pace of 2021 finds you already surprised that we’re more than halfway through the year, spare a thought for our elite sportswoman and gold medallist Lisa Carrington, who is barrelling towards the most extraordinary and unpredictable Olympic Games since the world wars.

Dressed in a cosy hoodie and sitting in the sun-soaked kitchen of her Auckland home, the Kiwi canoeist is trying to warm up after a morning’s training out on the North Shore’s Lake Pupuke, while also attempting to wrap her head around how little time there is until the big event.

“It’s all gone so fast,” she laughs. “It’s just trying to make sure that we’re still balancing how to get to the Olympics and staying on course – that we’re performing no matter what happens. I guess as we get closer, we’ll get some more certainty around actually getting to Tokyo...”

Lisa is not being metaphorical – physically getting to Tokyo for the Games, which are due to controversially start on July 23, in a year of ongoing lockdowns and limited flights, is one of many logistical nightmares that her team is nutting out. Getting a flight to Japan isn’t easy – they’re still battling the COVID beast, with Tokyo extending its state of emergency at the time of writing this – and then there’s the new waves of restrictions to deal with as well.

In March, it was confirmed that there were to be no international spectators at the Olympics – so not only will Lisa’s parents, who try to come to every race, be unable to cheer their daughter on, there maybe no one getting loud in the stands either as authorities are still to decide if they will allow locals to attend.