You could forgive Dame Lisa Carrington for feeling a bit nostalgic in recent weeks.

It must have been a strange feeling for the kayaking great, as the New Zealand team competed in World Cup events in Europe last month while she was at home in Auckland.

As announced last month, Carrington is taking a break from international competition this year, while maintaining her training regime. It wasn’t a complete surprise to kayaking insiders – and had been signposted for some time – but it marked the end of a remarkable run, stretching over 16 years.

When Carrington first competed at a senior World Cup event, John Key was in his first year as Prime Minister, Barack Obama had just entered the White House, and Instagram was yet to be launched on the world. It was May 2009.

Since then, Carrington has been to every World Cup and World Championships event that New Zealand has sent a team to. She has never been injured – an extraordinary feat in such a physically demanding sport – nor succumbed to illness, as she has racked up medals and records in the silver fern.

This time, she watched from her lounge as the squad competed in Hungary and Poland.

“It was great to see the team out there and it’s always interesting to see how everyone’s going,” Carrington tells the Herald. “But, you know, I could just close my eyes and you could feel what it would be like. So it was different for me but great to see the lessons that the team learned over there.”

Aimee Fisher collected medals in the K1 events (two golds in the K1 1000m and a bronze in the K1 500m) while the K4 crew – with Lucy Matehaere stepping into the boat – got a fourth and fifth.

“There’s so much learning to go and it’s great how committed they are to it,” says Carrington.

Her break, which could be likened to a sabbatical, is an “opportunity to try something different, away from international pressure or performance pressure”.

“It’s even just seeing what this kind of opportunity to not race would be like. And it’s looking to the future to make sure that it all lines up, so it’s a good opportunity to just take a second to [recharge] and figure that out.”

Carrington has continued to train, and there is a view in kayaking circles that she would have dominated the recent World Cup events regardless. There are plenty of people to paddle with when the team are away, though Carrington jokes that she could “follow my programme in my sleep”.

“I still love paddling and getting out on the water,” she said. “It’s a really unique and cool way to have a job.”

While family are a priority this year – and more time with husband Michael Buck – the big goal of competing at the 2028 Olympics hasn’t changed, according to Canoe Racing New Zealand.

The Herald caught up with Carrington last Wednesday, when she was conferred with an honorary doctorate from Auckland University of Technology (AUT). She was just the second sportsperson to receive the accolade (the first was Sir Peter Blake in 2000) in a moving ceremony in front of family, friends and colleagues.

The vice-chancellor, Professor Damon Salesa, noted her legacy of sport and service and described her unparalleled achievements on the international stage as “transformative” for New Zealand sport.

Carrington spoke eloquently, with the students present enthralled as she ended her speech with some advice.

“What I’ve learned from my sporting career is that success isn’t always linear. There are setbacks, doubts, days that test you. But if you stay grounded in who you are, have compassion for yourself and others, and keep learning, amazing things can happen. Let your values guide your ambition and don’t be afraid to redefine what success looks like to you.”

Afterwards, Carrington was clearly touched by the award, admitting that hearing her list of achievements read out on stage was surreal.

“This is a huge honour and incredibly humbling,” Carrington told the Herald. “But it is so important for me that this is not my own. It’s so many people that have got me here.”

It was also a chance for the nine-time Olympic medallist to reflect on her journey.

“Just to remember what it’s about,” says Carrington. “You can get so caught up in the day-to-day that it’s really nice to remember the purpose, why I am here and the bigger picture.”

Alongside her sporting career, Carrington has also ticked off academic pursuits, with a Bachelor of Arts from Massey University (Politics and Māori Studies) and a graduate diploma in Psychology.

“It’s been slow progress,” she says. “When you have a priority of turning up to training every day, 10 sessions a week, 15 to 20 hours of training, it does get very hard to find the energy. You might have the time, but the energy is hard. So it was all about prioritising and figuring out how to do it, that’s probably the hard part of working out how to get it all done. But that was a really integral part to the start of my sporting career, going to university and doing that.”

Michael Burgess has been a sports journalist for the New Zealand Herald since 2005, covering the Olympics, Fifa World Cups, and America’s Cup campaigns. He is a co-host of the Big League podcast.