Dame Lisa Carrington is set for a fourth Olympic Games. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
New Zealand will send its largest-ever women's canoe sprint team to the Olympic Games, led by the country's most successful Olympian, Dame Lisa Carrington.
A team of six athletes are set to paddle for New Zealand in Paris across the K1, K2 and K4 events.
The six-time Olympic medalist, Carrington, will contest all three disciplines.
She will be joined by Gisborne's Alicia Hoskin in the K2, as the duo look to defend the gold medal won by Dame Lisa and Caitlin Regal at the Tokyo Games.
Dame Lisa and Hoskin will also team up with Olympic debutants Tara Vaughan and Olivia Brett in the K4.
The quartet go into the Games as World Champions, having last year won New Zealand's first ever world title in the big boat.
Lisa Carrington and Caitlin Regal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Photo: Photosport Ltd 2021 / John Cowpland
Rio 2016 Olympian Aimee Fisher also makes her Olympic return.
She will contest the K1 500m, as well as the K2 500 where she'll be joined in the boat by the bolter of the squad Dunedin's Lucy Matehaere.
Paris 2024 will be Carrington's fourth Olympic Games and she said it is always a privilege to be named on a New Zealand Olympic team.
"For me, every Olympics is about learning, growing, seeing how fast I can go, and also about the amazing people and athletes that I get to paddle with."
Debutant Tara Vaughan said being selected for the Olympic team was a very special moment in her paddling career.
"As a team, we talk about building the mana of the black boat, which includes our family, friends and supporters, and I'm really lucky to have the opportunity to do that."
It is the first time New Zealand has ever qualified and named six female canoe sprint athletes for an Olympic Games.
The Olympic canoe sprint events begin in Paris on 6 August and run until 10 August at the new architecturally designed Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, the first water complex of its kind in Europe.
