Lisa Carrington's Olympic legend just keeps on growing.
Carrington became just the first New Zealand athlete to win three gold medals at a single Olympic Games twice, earning her eighth gold with victory in the women's K1 500m final in Paris on Saturday.
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The expected duel with fellow Kiwi Aimee Fisher did not eventuate as Carrington and Hungarian Tamara Csipes went bow-to-bow early on, before Carrington pulled away for a comfortable victory.
Csipes fired out off the start and was still ahead - by just 0.18 seconds - at the 250m mark. Carrington hit the front soon after and continued to extend the gap.
The 35-year-old won in an Olympic Best time of 1 minute 47.36 seconds on the calm waters of Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, with 1.08 seconds to spare from Csipes. Dane Emma Jorgensen held on for the bronze medal, just 0.15 seconds ahead of Fisher.
The second Kiwi was left behind by Carrington and Csipes in the early stages, with more than a boat-length gap to the rest of the field opening up.
Fisher struck a philosophical note afterwards.
“I felt peaceful and unafraid on the start line,” she said. “I trusted my plan, paddling one stroke at a time, but it wasn’t enough to win the race.”
After the race there was a nice moment of embrace on the water between Carrington and Fisher. Asked what she had said to Carrington, Fisher said: "I just said, 'I'm so proud of you. You raced beautifully.' She was magnificent out there. She's incredible."
Earlier, both the Kiwis were impressive in winning their semifinals. Fisher posted the second-fastest time, behind only Carrington, in taking her race by 1.42 seconds, while Carrington was the only paddler under 1:49, easing up to win by 1.49 seconds.
Carrington, New Zealand's most decorated Olympian, now has eight gold medals and a bronze from four Olympics.
She also won three golds in Tokyo three years ago, winning the women's K1 200m, K1 500m and K2 500m, with Caitlin Regal. She took gold in the women's K1 200m and bronze in the women's K1 500m at Rio 2016 and gold in the women's K1 200m at London 2012.
In Paris, the Ohope paddler teamed with Alicia Hoskin, Olivia Brett and Tara Vaughan to capture the women's K4 500m gold on Thursday, then joined Hoskin for the women's K2 500m gold on Friday.
New Zealand now has 16 medals in Paris - seven gold, seven silver and two bronze - trailing just Tokyo 2020 (20) and Rio 2016 (18) for the most all-time, while the team is just one short of the eight gold medals won at Los Angeles 1984.
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