Lisa Carrington now has six Olympic medals to her name. Photo / Getty Images
Lisa Carrington now has six Olympic medals to her name. Photo / Getty Images
Lisa Carrington is in a class of her own.
In winning the K1 500m final today, Carrington became New Zealand's most decorated Olympic athlete as she claimed her sixth medal (fifth gold).
It was her third gold medal during the Tokyo Games, which gives her a higher individual count than184 of the competing countries.
As the medal table reflects the number of golds won by a country - with silver and bronze the tiebreakers - Carrington would sit 22nd on the table - above countries like Denmark (25th, two golds), Norway (26th, two golds), Spain (34th, one gold), South Africa (40th, one gold), Portugal (45th, one gold), Belgium (46th, one gold) and Argentina (80th, one bronze).
Lisa Carrington now has six Olympic medals to her name. Photo / Getty Images
"It's amazing. You set out for such a big task this week and to be able to do it is just another thing. I'm just so proud and just so amazed at what has happened this week so far," she told Sky Sport.
"Learning from Rio, you might have the capability to have great races but to actually execute it and do it is another thing," she said. "It's taken me five years to have that courage to get back out there and do something that is really scary and hurts a lot.
"I hate it, but I love it."
Now our most decorated Olympian in history 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥉🐐
With Carrington set to take her place in the K4 tomorrow alongside Regal, Alicia Hoskin and Teneale Hatton, there is a chance she could add to her tally before boarding a flight back to New Zealand.
"Crazy. There's a lot of talk, people saying, 'You could do this, you could do that,' but for me, it was just making sure I just did what I could do, not focusing too much on the what-ifs."
Full Kiwi schedule below. Click on a name to see athlete's bio, upcoming events, past Games performance and medal chance.
