She's our greatest ever Olympian - but just who is Lisa Carrington?

She’s the poster girl of New Zealand kayaking, the five-time Olympic gold medallist with an infectious laugh. But Dame Lisa Carrington wants to be known for more than just her success on the water, as Guy Heveldt reports for Sunday.

Dame Lisa Carrington is an indomitable force in the world of kayaking.

With five gold medals won across three Olympic Games, she is our most successful Olympian of all time.

And now, she’s less than 100 days out from a tilt at adding three more medals to her collection.

Carrington is the favourite to defend her gold in the K1 500, the K2 500 with Alicia Hoskin, and perhaps most notably at this games, the K4 500.

On the outside she seems unflappable, unbeatable, stoic, and immovably calm.

On the inside though?

Pressure to win

“I feel it all, I feel the pressure, the expectation,” Carrington told Sunday.

“I could see it as if I don’t win, people will think poorly of me.”

But she does not like to always focus on the expectations, she said.

“I’ll be really disappointed if I lose. Absolutely, I would be distraught. But at the end of the day, sport is a game.”

Her husband, Michael (Bucky) Buck, sees it all first hand.

“I’d say there would seldom be a day where she doesn’t feel an element of pressure,” he said.

“A lot of that is self-driven, she’s driving for a little bit of perfection. She tries to steer away from perfection, but it’s there.”

The success she has accomplished only adds to it, he explained.

“She does feel that weight of expectation.”

Dame Lisa is driven by routine - a coffee before training, stretching, journalling, and then off to training.

Training is never shorter or longer than what is set out by her coach Gordon Walker. That is because everything is planned perfectly,

Buck said this was something that blows his mind sometimes.

“Talking openly about the pressure are thing that really help her, and I think when it comes to the brace moment, my interpretation is that she just decides she has to accept it.

“It’s just there and she’s just got to face into it and embrace the opportunity.”

Perhaps a sign of not wanting to add extra pressure onto herself is the absence of her numerous Olympic and World Championship medals on display in her home.

“There’s probably two things in that: I don’t want to be showing off, I don’t want to be too proud. Just humble,” Carrington said.

“And I also want to be more than just a kayaker and Olympian. I’m Lisa Carrington, I’m a daughter, a wife. I think that is really important too.”

The only award on display at Carrington’s home is the Supreme Halberg award, one of three she has picked up.

“Bucky put it out,” she laughed.

“But it’s pretty cool, it’s more than just an award I think.”

Love of food

Those closest to Carrington want to reiterate she is more than just the performances the public get to see.

She is a keen cook, with a vegetable garden in her backyard. It is here where she and Bucky whip up goodness on a regular basis. Anything from pizza to a special ‘elephant dung’ dip created by her mum, full of “cheesy, oniony goodness.”

It is a treat for Carrington, but something she allows herself to enjoy.

Close friend Fiona Hastie said Carrington was “in tune with her body.”

“She’s smart about stuff like that. She has got a real appreciation for food.

“I think you wouldn’t find Bucky and Lisa happier than having a houseful of their friends making something yummy."

For Carrington, food is one of the joys of travelling the world.

“When I go to a new country, the people are so passionate about their food, where it comes from, and I think I’ve really been able to connect with the tradition behind it,” she said.

“In Italy, it’s pasta and pizza and buffalo mozzarella. They talk about their dough, it’s centuries old. I think for me, it’s so amazing to understand and connect with people around food.

“And food tastes good,” she laughed.

But food has not always brought happy memories for the kayaking superstar. It has also, in part, led to moments that have stuck with her for years.

More than a decade ago, Carrington was eating an ice cream when a coach made a comment to her.

“’A second on the lips, a lifetime on the hips.’ I still remember it,” she recalled.

“I think it’s people in those really powerful positions that have influence.”

Unwanted attention

She has also had comments from the general public on her appearance.

The 34-year-old is known for her muscular physique, power, and athletic prowess which has led to some judgement.

“I went into a dairy the other day (and) the dairy owner, super, super innocent, he’s like ‘God, you haven’t been in here for a while.’  I'm like ‘yeah, yeah I've moved places’, and he’s like ‘oh you're a lot bigger now.’”

Some days she can handle the comments and see that nothing is meant by them, but other days they can get to her, she said.

“There are days when comments made me second guess what I’m wearing or how I feel about myself.

“I’m different, I look a bit different… maybe you don’t see as many women like me that have muscles, so it’s just an awareness that people notice it.”

It can affect how she feels about going out in public and she said she “doesn’t always love” being recognised.

“Sometimes, it’s wearing a hoodie and track pants down the road because I don’t want people to talk to me about my muscles.”

Chasing gold in Paris

Carrington is in the public eye though, and in less than 100 days will have most of the country watching her as she tries to add to her illustrious career, five Olympic gold medals and 15 world titles.

One of these recent world titles was history making for Kiwi sport – the first women’s K4 world title in Germany last year.

Alongside Alicia Hoskin, 24, Olivia Brett, 22, and Tara Vaughan, 20, the quartet put the canoe sprint world on notice with the achievement.

The team have only been in the boat together for two years but now head to Paris as favourites to turn their world title into Olympic gold.

Brett said a focus on team work has been “so much more fulfilling.”

“I’ve been kayaking for 10 years, the last two years have been the most fulfilling.”

Vaughan, the youngest member of the crew, still can’t quite believe the boat she’s in and the paddlers she’s alongside.

“We’re so lucky we’ve got girls with pinch yourself experience. We’re trying to learn more and more together how to be a better team.”

Hoskin competed in Tokyo, and along with Carrington was part of the K4 crew that made the final but finished outside of medal contention.

She believes this crew has something different.

“We’ve done a lot of work behind the scenes to keep our mentality. We’re trying not to limit ourselves by what other countries are doing, we’re almost thinking how far can a women’s kayak go? What other barriers are there out there that we can break?”

Coach Gordon Walker believes the next couple of months of training and competition in Europe will give them the perfect gauge of where they are at before that gold medal tilt.

“It will be interesting to see what the rest of the world thinks, are we still underdogs or what? One swallow doesn’t make a summer.

“We had one good race, does that mean much to the rest of the world?”

Carrington said there’s no favouritism towards what medal would be best if she’s able to bring any home.

“Whether we win or not, it is making sure that we strive for something that we all believe in. It is really special to be part of a team and part of a group where we all want the same thing.

“There is a real power in that and teams that work well together are really hard to come by.”

The quartet leaves for Europe next weekend, where the youngsters will try to win their first Olympic medals and Carrington will try to add to New Zealand’s greatest Olympics career.