Do we like Lisa Carrington?
Our score: 8 out of 10. A clean record and real, practical support for women's sport, with a fairly thin public paper trail on wider causes.
Lisa Carrington is the kayaker who turned New Zealand into a sprint canoeing powerhouse. By the end of Paris 2024 she was an eight-time Olympic gold medallist, with three golds from that Games alone. She was also picked as a closing ceremony flagbearer, which tells you how much the team rates her.
Her story isn't just trophies. She has talked about leaning on her Māori heritage to stay steady before Tokyo, saying she is both Māori and pākehā and that acknowledging both sides matters. That's a person who knows where she comes from, and says so without making a show of it.
On the harm test, there's honestly not much to chew on, and that's a good thing. We found no comments about LGBTQ+ or trans people, no conspiracy rabbit holes, no climate or vaccine nonsense and no culture-war posting. Her name shows up next to mainstream sponsors like Zespri, not anyone pushing harm. The caveat is that she keeps politics out of her public life, so the record is short rather than loud.
On the good-person side, we found no court cases, accusations or staff complaints about her. Her own words are about teamwork. She credits long-time coach Gordon Walker with a huge influence on her performance, and says that if gold were her best she would have stopped after London.
The good stuff is practical. In 2025 she joined the ownership group of the Kāhu women's basketball team, which was the first all-women-owned sports team in New Zealand. She said women's sport can influence far beyond the game itself. She has also been an ambassador for Save the Kiwi, helping educate dog owners about the risks to kiwi.
Nothing new on her lately that raises a stoush. Her commercial work, like the four-year Zespri ambassador deal, is standard athlete stuff, and she has pitched it around nutrition and performance. So the verdict is a clear yes, with the small asterisk that we know a lot about her paddling and not much about her politics.