Hoskin second-time Olympian

Powerful pairing . . . Dame Lisa Carrington will be at her fourth Olympics, teamed with Gisborne’s Alicia Hoskin at her second Games in Paris, driving the women’s K2 500m kayak in a bid to defend NZ’s K2 gold medal win in Tokyo. File picture

Gisborne’s world champion sprint kayak paddler Alicia Hoskin is officially on her way to her second  Olympic Games with New Zealand’s strongest kayaking team.

The New Zealand Olympic team has named its largest-ever women’s canoe sprint team for the Games, with six athletes to wear the fern and paddle in black in Paris.

They will compete across the K1, K2 and K4 events at the Games, with New Zealand’s most successful Olympian, Dame Lisa Carrington, to lead the charge and contest all three disciplines.

Hoskin will sit in the K2 boat with the six-time Olympic medalist, as the duo set out to defend the gold medal won in the K2 500m by Dame Lisa and Caitlin Regal at the Tokyo Games.

They will team up with Games debutantes 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 world title in the big boat.

Rio 2016 Olympian Aimee Fisher also makes her Olympic return. She will contest the K1 500m, as well as the K2 500 where she will be teamed with the bolter of the squad, Dunedin’s Lucy Matehaere.

Hoskin was one of four women’s paddlers in the New Zealand team in Tokyo for the delayed 2020 Summer Games, placing 14th in the K2 500m with Teneale Hatton, and 4th in the K4 500m, alongside Hatton, Lisa Carrington, and Caitlin Regal.

Born and raised in Gisborne, she attended Gisborne Girls High School and was a member of the Poverty Bay Kayak Club coached by 1984 Olympic sprint canoeist Liz Thompson.

She was selected for the junior canoe sprint world championships in 2017 when, as a 17-year-old, she underwent a routine pre-departure health check  that revealed Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, which is present at birth and can cause rapid heartbeats and even heart failure. Hoskin required a cardiac ablation, a procedure that scars tissue in the heart to block abnormal electrical signals.

“When you have a couple of months off it almost feels like you’re learning how to paddle again. So I definitely didn’t pick up where I left off, but I had that commitment and that determination to commit to the goal and the Olympic dream,” she said at the time.

After moving to Auckland to train with the Canoe Racing New Zealand high performance squad, the Olympics were back in focus. Hoskin made her World Championship debut in Hungary, finishing ninth in the K2 500m A final with Caitlin Ryan.

She went on to be named in the Tokyo Olympic team and be named Canoe Sprint Athlete of the Year at the Canoe Racing New Zealand 2020 Sport and Recognition Awards.

The K4 world title in Germany last year was the icing on the cake leading up to this week’s team announcement.

Paris 2024 will be Dame Lisa’s fourth Olympic Games and she says it is “such a privilege” to be named in 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,” said Dame Lisa.

Tara Vaughan says that being selected for the Olympic team is 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,” said Vaughan.

It is the first time New Zealand has ever qualified and named six female canoe sprint athletes for an Olympic Games.

Olympic canoe sprint events begin in Paris on August 6 and run until August 10 at the new architecturally designed Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, the first water complex of its kind in Europe.

The full team :

Dame Lisa Carrington - K1 500, K2 500

(with Alicia Hoskin), K4  500.

Alicia Hoskin - K2  500, K4  500.

Tara Vaughan - K4  500 (reserve for K2  500).

Olivia Brett - K4  500 (reserve for K2  500).

Aimee Fisher - K1 500, K2 500 (with Lucy Matehaere).

Lucy Matehaere - K2 500 (reserve for

K4 500).