Penny Oleksiak

Penelope Oleksiak (born June 13, 2000) is a Canadian competitive swimmer who specializes in the freestyle and butterfly events. During the 2016 Summer Olympics, she became the first Canadian to win four medals in the same Summer Games and the country's youngest Olympic champion, with a gold in the 100 m freestyle, a silver in the 100 m butterfly, and two bronzes in the women's freestyle relays (4×100 m and 4×200 m). With her gold medal win, she became the first athlete born in the 2000s to claim an Olympic gold medal in an individual event.[4]

Penny Oleksiak
Penny Oleksiak at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Personal information
National team Canada
Born (2000-06-13) June 13, 2000[1]
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Height1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)[1][2]
Weight68 kg (150 lb)[1]
Sport
SportSwimming
StrokesFreestyle, butterfly
ClubEnergy Standard
Toronto Swim Club, High Performance Center – Ontario[3]
CoachBill O'Toole, Ben Titley

One year prior, Oleksiak had won six medals at the 2015 FINA World Junior Swimming Championships. She is the current junior world and Canadian record holder in the 100 m freestyle and 100 m butterfly, initially setting the records at the age of 15 while improving them at age 16. She currently shares the Olympic record in the 100-metre freestyle with Simone Manuel. Her success at the 2016 Olympics led to her being awarded the 2016 Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada's top athlete, the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as Canada's top female athlete for 2016, and the Canadian Press team of the year.

Career

After learning to swim at a neighbour's pool, Oleksiak took up the sport at the age of 9 encouraged by her father. She had also taken up gymnastics and competitive dance.[5] Oleksiak attempted to join several swim clubs in Toronto, but was rejected having trouble swimming the length of pool. She was eventually taken in by coach Gary Nolden at the Toronto Olympian Swim Team where she gained the foundation that started her swimming career. Looking back at how she began her swimming career at the Toronto Olympian Swim Team, Oleksiak said, "The coach there really helped me. He had a lot of faith in me. If I hadn't gone to that club, I don't think I would be where I am today."[6] Within a year, a race by Oleksiak at the University of Toronto drew the attention of coach Ben Titley, who would go on to lead Canada's Olympic team.[7] Titley would begin working with her, sporadically at first, then in monthly and weekly basis. As a 14-year-old at the 2014 Canadian Age Group Championships, Oleksiak won 10 individual medals—five gold, three silver and two bronze—setting a personal best in each and every race, and then tacked on three relay golds.[8]

Extra investments came as the data analytics division of Canadian Tire appointed Oleksiak, whose top FINA ranking at the time was 319th, as a possible Olympic medalist in the 2020 Summer Games.[9] First indications of great potential for Oleksiak were identified when, six weeks after fracturing her elbow in a cycle accident, she was still able to win six medals at the 2015 FINA World Junior Swimming Championships. This included a gold in the mixed 4 × 100 m freestyle relay; silver in her signature 100 m freestyle event; silver in the 50 and 100 m butterfly; a silver in the 4 × 200 m relay and a bronze in the 4 × 100 m freestyle events.[3]

Her next goal was to qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro as part of the Canadian national team; there she set the Junior world record in qualifying for the 100 m freestyle. After winning the race she said "being able to get the world junior record means quite a bit to me".[2] Oleksiak also beat Chantal Van Landeghem's Canadian record in the process; Van Landeghem joined Oleksiak in the 100 and 4 × 100 m freestyle events for the Olympics. Oleksiak also set the Canadian and World Junior records in the 100 m butterfly en route to the Olympics in that event.[10] Before the Olympics, Oleksiak had risen to 49th in the 100-metre freestyle rankings and 37th in the 100-metre butterfly, and the Canadian Tire analysts appointed her to possibly win a medal in Rio.[9]

2016 Short course world championships

In December 2016 Oleksiak participated in the short course world championships in the Canadian city of Windsor. Being her first international competition following the Olympics, in front of her own crowd, Oleksiak was the centre of attentions of fans and media. Oleksiak won a bronze medal in the women's 100-metre freestyle on the third day of competition,[11] breaking her 3rd World Junior record and two days later helped the Canadian team win gold in the 4 × 200-metre freestyle relays.[12] In the final day of competition, Oleksiak anchored Canada to another gold, in the 4 × 50-metre freestyle relay, and a silver medal at the 4 × 100-metre medley relay.[13] Canada also finished third in the 4 × 100-metre freestyle relay, but wound up disqualified.[14]

As a result of her performances at the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 2016 short course championships Oleksiak was awarded the Lou Marsh Award as Canada's top athlete of the year and was named CBC's athlete of the year as well.[15][16] She was also given the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as Canada's female athlete of the year,[17] and was named in the team of the year, anchoring the Canadian women's swim team in Rio and Windsor.[18]

2016 Summer Olympics

Oleksiak would compete for Canada's swimming team at the Rio 2016 Olympics in five races.[19] Her competition began on day one. In the heats of the 100 m butterfly, she broke the national record and world junior record with a time of 56.73 on her way to the semi-finals. Oleksiak also anchored the final leg of the women's 4×100 m freestyle relay team with Taylor Ruck, Chantal van Landeghem, Sandrine Mainville, and Michelle Williams with the latter only swimming in the heat. In the final of the relay event she held on to the third position against the United States and Australia, winning Canada's first Olympic medal in the women's freestyle relay in 40 years.[20] After the race, the 16-year-old said "No one really expected this of Canada coming into the meet, but now that we are here, people are going to be surprised at what we do."[20]

The next night she competed in the 100 m butterfly final. Oleksiak started out fast, touching the halfway wall in third before finishing characteristically strong in second place, winning the silver medal. She again bettered her world junior record and Canadian record in the 100 m butterfly in the process. Oleksiak became the first Canadian to ever win a medal on each of the first two days of the Olympics. With the win she exclaimed that "I'm just happy that I made Canada proud and getting to look up into the stands and find my parents, it's just amazing for me and it's such a great feeling."[21]

Returning to the pool on day five, Oleksiak again had a record breaking qualifier followed by a relay medal. She broke the world junior record of the 100 m freestyle with 52.72, the second fastest time of the qualifying heats, and anchored the 4×200 m freestyle relay, again winning the bronze[22] (along with Katerine Savard, Taylor Ruck, and Brittany MacLean). Oleksiak's leg time of 1:54.94 was the 4th fastest in the field after the three medalists of the 200 m freestyle.[23]

On day six, Oleksiak was seventh at the 50-metre turn of the 100 m freestyle, and eventually surged for a gold medal finish, tied with Simone Manuel and setting an Olympic record of 52.70.[24][8] Oleksiak is the youngest Canadian to become an Olympic champion, the first to win four Summer Olympics medals in the same edition, and has the second most medals of the country in a single edition after Cindy Klassen in the 2006 Winter Olympics. She is also the first athlete born in the 2000s to win an individual Olympic gold.[25][26] Day eight marked Oleksiak's fifth Olympic race and the only one she did not medal in that edition, being the butterfly swimmer of the 4 × 100 m medley relay that finished in fifth place.[27] It was announced the morning of the closing ceremony that Oleksiak would be Canada's flag bearer for the event.[28] Just days before the closing ceremony, Penny quietly returned to her home in Toronto for two days to go to Canada's Wonderland with her friends, before heading back to Rio.[29]

2017 season

Oleksiak's first competition in 2017 was the Arena Pro Swim Series in Mesa, Arizona, held in March. Hindered by injuries, she finished fourth in the 100 m freestyle.[30] Oleksiak had troubles with a shoulder injury for most of the year before suffering a concussion when she was hit in the head with a medicine ball in the gym.[31] Despite this she had more success at the Team Canada trials one month later, winning the 100m freestyle and butterfly races and earning spots for both in the 2017 World Aquatics Championships.[32][33]

In the world championships Oleksiak anchored the team in the 4 x 100 m relay, though the team finished just off the podium in fourth place. In the 100 m butterfly Oleksiak just missed the podium getting fourth place when she swam in 56.94,[34] followed by 5th in 50 m fly (25.62, a Canadian record),[35] and 6th in the 100 m freestyle (52.94).[36] However, she won two bronze medals in the mixed relays, after swimming the butterfly leg of the mixed 4 × 100 m medley – with the Canadian team tied for bronze with the Chinese team after Yuri Kisil swam the anchor leg -[37] and as anchor of the 4 × 100 m freestyle.[38]

Oleksiak competed at the World Junior Swimming Championships in Indianapolis.[39] Oleksiak did not participate in any individual events, but swam in all five possible relay events helping Canada to win all five gold medals, breaking the junior world record and championship record in four of them. Following the junior championships Oleksiak switched coaches from Ben Titley to Bill O'Toole, her original age group coach in the Toronto Swim Club.[40][41]

2018-20 seasons

In September 2017, Oleksiak was named to Canada's 2018 Commonwealth Games team.[42][43] While unsuccessful in the individual races, Oleksiak won three silvers in the relays.[44] Despite qualifying wins at the Canadian Swim Trials, Oleksiak opted not to compete in the 2018 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in August, instead resting before resuming training in September.[45] In the Autumn of 2019 Oleksiak was member of the inaugural International Swimming League swimming for the Energy Standard International Swim Club, who won the team title in Las Vegas, Nevada, in December.[46]

Personal life

Oleksiak is the youngest of five siblings, one of whom is NHL defenceman Jamie Oleksiak,[47] who plays for the Dallas Stars. The rest of the family also has an athletic tradition: her father, Richard, is from Buffalo, New York and played basketball, football and field athletics and her mother held multiple Scottish Age Group swimming records in freestyle and backstroke.[48] Older sister Hayley is a rower at Northeastern University, and older brother Jake played college hockey.[49] She attended Monarch Park Collegiate Institute in Toronto, Ontario until leaving at the end of the 2016–17 school year.[10] Oleksiak has a dog named Jagr after Jaromír Jágr and a cat named Rio.[50]

Personal bests

Long course (50 m pool)
Event Time[51] Venue Date Notes
50 m butterfly 25.62 Danube Arena, Budapest July 29, 2017 NR
100 m butterfly 56.46 Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Rio de Janeiro August 7, 2016 WJR, NR
200 m butterfly 2:09.96 University of British Columbia, Vancouver June 3, 2018
50 m freestyle 25.38 26th International Meeting, Uster February 4, 2018
100 m freestyle 52.70 Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Rio de Janeiro August 11, 2016 OR*, WJR, NR
200 m freestyle 1:56.92 Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, Toronto April 6, 2019

Short course (25 m pool)
Event Time[51] Venue Date Notes
100 m freestyle 52.01 WFCU Centre, Windsor December 8, 2016 WJR, NR
gollark: But if you pick people with good scores, you get more good doctors.
gollark: It's not like having a good score causes you to be a good doctor.
gollark: I mean, if they won't actually... work as a doctor... then they aren't really very good.
gollark: > you could get the best damn doctor in the world, highest grades and shit, but you hire him and he doesnt treat minorities, what are you gonna do? He is the best qualified, after allThat would make them... not a good doctor?
gollark: > Well, it ends up being biased, just like life.Don't deliberately include *more*.

See also

References
  1. "Penny Oleksiak". Canadian Olympic Team Official Website. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
  2. Spencer, Donna (April 9, 2016). "Teenage star Oleksiak mows down records at Olympic swimming trials". CBC Sports. Retrieved December 12, 2016.
  3. "Penny Oleksiak". Swim Canada. Retrieved April 9, 2016.
  4. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-12/rio-2016-swimmers-who-beat-campbell-sisters-make-olympic-history/7729036
  5. Kevin Sherrington (August 8, 2016). "How 16-year-old Penny Oleksiak, Stars defenseman Jamie's sister, became the latest Olympic star". Dallas News.
  6. Morris, Jim (August 3, 2016). "Teenager Penny Oleksiak still growing into her swimming potential". Swimming Canada. Retrieved August 18, 2016.
  7. Gatehouse, Jonathon (August 7, 2016). "The Amazing Penny Oleksiak: 'I just tried to hold on'". Maclean's. Retrieved August 18, 2016.
  8. Gatehouse, Jonathon (August 17, 2016). "The making of Penny Oleksiak". Sportsnet. Retrieved August 18, 2016.
  9. "The future of Canadian swimming is in the numbers". Toronto Star. December 10, 2016. Retrieved December 12, 2016.
  10. "Person of interest: Swimming Canada's best-kept secret, Penny Oleksiak". SportsNet. August 9, 2016. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
  11. "Canada's Penny Oleksiak finds success despite distractions at world championships". Toronto Star. December 8, 2016.
  12. "Oleksiak anchors Canada to short-course relay gold". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved December 12, 2016.
  13. "Canada wins gold in 4x50m freestyle relay at short-course worlds". Sportsnet. The Canadian Press. December 11, 2016. Retrieved December 12, 2016.
  14. "Canada's women's relay swim team DQ'd for lineup snafu". Toronto Star. December 6, 2016.
  15. "Swimmer Penny Oleksiak wins Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada's top athlete". The Globe and Mail. December 13, 2016.
  16. Callum Ng (December 18, 2016). "Penny Oleksiak: Canadian athlete of the year". CBC Sports.
  17. "Penny Oleksiak voted Canadian Press female athlete of year". Sportsnet. The Canadian Press. December 27, 2016. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
  18. Donna Spencer (December 28, 2016). "Canada's female swimmers win Canadian Press team of the year". Toronto Star.
  19. "Olympic Team Nominated for Rio 2016". Swimming Canada. Swimming Canada. April 10, 2016. Retrieved April 27, 2016.
  20. Gatehouse, Jonathon (August 6, 2016). "The Young and the Fast: Canada wins relay bronze in Rio". Maclean's.
  21. "Canada's Penny Oleksiak wins 2nd medal of Rio Olympics". CBC Sports. August 7, 2016.
  22. Callum Ng (August 10, 2016). "Penny Oleksiak leads Canada to bronze in 4×200 freestyle relay". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
  23. "Oleksiak Leads As Canada Destroys National 4×200 Free Relay Record". SwimSwam. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
  24. Ng, Callum (August 12, 2016). "Penny Oleksiak wins gold, captures historic 4th Olympic medal". CBC Sports. Retrieved August 12, 2016.
  25. Little, Simon (August 11, 2016). "Penny Oleksiak gives Canada its first gold a Rio, shattering records". CKNW. Retrieved August 12, 2016.
  26. Arthur, Bruce (August 11, 2016). "Swimming phenom Penny Oleksiak earns Canada's first gold in Rio: Arthur". Toronto Star. Retrieved August 12, 2016.
  27. Wyman, Ted (August 14, 2016). "'A true champion': Despite record medal haul, Penny Oleksiak worried she let her team down". National Post. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
  28. Rumley, Jonathan (August 21, 2016). "Penny Oleksiak to carry flag for Canada at Rio closing ceremony". Toronto Star. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
  29. "Penny Oleksiak Talks Sneaking Home From Rio to Go to Wonderland with Roz & Mocha". CIOC-FM. August 26, 2016. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
  30. Hodges, Coleman (March 4, 2017). "Penny Oleksiak Successfully Training Through Injuries (Video)". SwimSwam. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
  31. "Adapting to Fame, Dealing with Injury, Part of Olympic Champion Penny Oleksiak's Learning Curve". Swimming Canada. July 18, 2017.
  32. "Penny Oleksik Shows Fight to Win 100-Metre Freestyle at Team Canada Trials". Swimming Canada. April 7, 2017. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
  33. "Kylie Masse Surprisees Hilary Caldwell to Win 200-m Backstroke at Team Canada Trials". Swimming Canada. April 9, 2017. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
  34. "Penny Oleksiak misses podium, Masse close to world record". CBC Sports. July 24, 2017.
  35. Sporer, Evan (July 28, 2017). "Oleksiak breaks Canadian 50m butterfly record at 2017 FINA World Championships". Sporting News.
  36. Harrison, Doug (July 28, 2017). "Penny Oleksiak 6th in 100m freestyle final at aquatics worlds". CBC Sports. Retrieved July 28, 2017.
  37. "World record-breaking swimmer Masse adds bronze in mixed relay". CBC Sports. July 26, 2017.
  38. "Canadian mixed relay team swims to bronze at aquatics worlds". CBC Sports. July 29, 2017. Retrieved July 30, 2017.
  39. "FISU Games, World Junior Teams Announced". Swimming Canada. April 10, 2017. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
  40. "Penny Oleksiak, Canada win relay gold at world junior swimming championships". Toronto Star. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. August 23, 2017. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
  41. "4-time Olympic medallist Oleksiak returning to former coach O'Toole". CBC Sports. August 31, 2017.
  42. "Swimming Canada Nominates 26 Athletes to Canada's 2018 Commonwealth Games Team". swimming.ca/. Swimming Canada. September 26, 2017. Retrieved September 27, 2017.
  43. "Oleksiak, Masse headline Canadian swim team for Commonwealth Games". cbc.ca/. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). September 26, 2017. Retrieved September 27, 2017.
  44. "Athlete Profile: Penny Oleksiak". Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games. Retrieved June 12, 2018.
  45. "Oleksiak withdraws from Pan Pacs to prepare for push to 2020". Swimming Canada. July 22, 2018. Retrieved August 12, 2018.
  46. "Club Rosters – International Swimming League". Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  47. Gillespie, Kerry (April 7, 2016). "Canada's Penny Oleksiak makes waves at Olympic swim trials". Toronto Star.
  48. "Canada's swimming sensation Penny Oleksiak, 16, is an 'honorary' Western New Yorker". The Buffalo News. August 7, 2016. Retrieved December 20, 2017.
  49. "Get to know Penny Oleksiak, Canada's 16-year-old swimming medalist". Toronto Star. August 8, 2016. Retrieved August 14, 2016.
  50. Share-Cohen, Brandon (August 16, 2016). "Olympian Penny Oleksiak Names Dog After Jaromir Jagr".
  51. "Penelope Oleksiak". Swimming Canada. Retrieved December 12, 2016.
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