OLEKSIAK Penny

13 Jun 2000
21
Female
SCARBOROUGH, ON
 
Canada
TORONTO, ON
 
Canada

Events and Medals

Schedule

Change
Start Time Location Event Status
Tokyo Aquatics Centre
Finished
Tokyo Aquatics Centre
Finished
Tokyo Aquatics Centre
Finished
Tokyo Aquatics Centre
Finished
Tokyo Aquatics Centre
Finished
Tokyo Aquatics Centre
Finished
Tokyo Aquatics Centre
Finished
Tokyo Aquatics Centre
Finished
Tokyo Aquatics Centre
Finished
Tokyo Aquatics Centre
Finished
Tokyo Aquatics Centre
Finished
Tokyo Aquatics Centre
Finished

Biographical Information

Highlights

:
Olympic Games
YearLocation100Free100Fly4x100Free W4x200Free4x100Medley W
2016Rio de Janeiro, BRA1st (52.70)2nd (56.46)3rd (3:32.89)3rd (7:45.39)5th (3:55.49)

World Championships - Individual Freestyle, Backstroke, Breaststroke and Butterfly events
YearLocation100Free200Free50Fly100Fly
2019Gwangju, KORH (DNS)6th (1:56.59)6th (25.69)-
2017Budapest, HUN6th (52.94)-5th (25.62)4th (56.94)

World Championships - Medley and Relay events
YearLocation4x100Free W4x100Free X4x200Free4x100Medley W4x100Medley X
2019Gwangju, KOR3rd (3:31.78)4th (3:22.54)3rd (7:44.35)3rd (3:53.58)-
2017Budapest, HUN4th (3:33.88)3rd (3:23.55)-4th (3:54.86)3rd (3:41.25)

Champions Swim Series overview - Three best ranks per season and event since 2019
Year100Free200Free50Fly100Fly4x100Free
20192 x 4th1 x 1st1 x 3rd2 x 3rd1 x 1st

Champions Swim Series - Ten best performances since 2019
RankYearEventLocationResult
12019200m FreestyleIndianapolis, IN, USA1:57.18
120194 x 100m Freestyle RelayBudapest, HUN3:27.63
32019Women's 50m ButterflyBudapest, HUN26.04
32019100m ButterflyIndianapolis, IN, USA58.44
32019100m ButterflyBudapest, HUN58.52
42019100m FreestyleIndianapolis, IN, USA54.22
42019100m FreestyleBudapest, HUN54.45

World Championships Short Course
YearLocation100Free4x50Free W4x50Medley W4x100Free4x200Free4x100Medley
2016Windsor, ON, CAN3rd (52.01)1st (1:35.00)4th (1:46.00)8th (DSQ)1st (7:33.89)2nd (3:48.87)

World Junior Championships
YearLocation4x100Free W4x100Free X4x200Free4x100Medley W4x100Medley X
2017Indianapolis, IN, USA1st (3:36.19)1st (3:26.65)1st (7:51.47)1st (3:58.38)1st (3:46.36)


Legend
Free - Freestyle, Back - Backstroke, Breast - Breaststroke, Fly - Butterfly, IndMed - Individual Medley, SF - Semifinal, H - Heats, DNS - Did Not Start, M - Men, W - Women, X - Mixed, DSQ - Disqualified, [Relay athlete without time] - Did not swim in final
:
Pen (torontolife.com, 18 Dec 2018)
:
Reading, cycling, playing with her dog, listening to music, spending time with friends, watching movies, fashion, interior design. (swimmingworldmagazine.com, 06 Dec 2020; torontosun.com, 27 Apr 2020; torontolife.com, 18 Dec 2018)
:
Athlete
:
English
:
Ben Titley [national], GBR; John Atkinson [national]
:
Her brother Jamie has played as a defenceman for the Dallas Stars and the Pittsburgh Penguins in the National Hockey League [NHL], while her sister Hayley has rowed at Northeastern University in Boston, MA, United States of America. Her mother Alison was a competitive swimmer in Scotland. (torontolife.com, 18 Dec 2018; cbc.ca, 06 Apr 2016; beachmetro.com, 08 Sep 2015)
:
In 2017 she was injured in training when a medicine ball struck her head. At the time she was also recovering from a lingering shoulder injury. Neither injury prevented her from competing in the world championships that year. (cbc.ca, 15 Jul 2019)
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She learned to swim at age nine. (olympic.ca, 11 Apr 2016)
:
"My mum told me I had to pick something to do because, 'We're not dealing with you having a crazy amount of energy at home'. I just chose swimming and I was terrible at it. I remember my mum trying to teach me and my sister how to do butterfly in the lake. I was awful. My mum took me to a bunch of competitive swim clubs and they kept asking me to do different strokes. I barely knew what breaststroke was, I didn't know what the kick was like. I was so confused. One day I just had a coach take me in and, from then on, I loved swimming and I kept working to try and be the best that I could be at it." (swimmingworldmagazine.com, 06 Dec 2020)
:
To compete at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. (macleans.ca, 23 Dec 2019)
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She trains at the High Performance Centre in Toronto, ON, Canada. (swimmingworldmagazine.com, 06 Dec 2020; swimming.ca, 13 Jun 2019)
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Her parents. (torontolife.com, 18 Dec 2018)
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"It's not about who has the biggest muscles or best speed, it's about who wants it more." (swimmingworldmagazine.com, 06 Dec 2020)
:
In 2016 she was named CBC Sports' Athlete of the Year and received the Lou Marsh Trophy, awarded by a panel of journalists, as Canada's Athlete of the Year. That year she was also named Female Breakout Swimmer of the Year and Female Canadian Swimmer of the Year in swimming website SwimSwam's Swammy Awards, and Female Swimmer of the Year by Swimming Canada. (sportsnet.ca, 13 Dec 2016; cbc.ca, 15 Dec 2016; swimswam.com, 26 Dec 2016)

She was named flag bearer for Canada at the closing ceremony of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. (swimswam.com, 14 Sep 2016)

General Interest

General
TAKING A BREAK
She competed at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, QLD, Australia, just days after the death of her grandmother. After the Games she took some time away from major competitions so that she could focus on "being a teenager" and take a break from the pressure. She returned to international competitions in mid-2019. "It [taking a break] helped to get myself mentally prepared for another few years of really hard training for the next Olympics [in 2020]. Taking a break was worth it." (macleans.ca, 23 Dec 2019; cbc.ca, 15 Jul 2019; torontolife.com, 18 Dec 2018)

DEALING WITH PRESSURE
She says that she learnt to deal with the pressure of success after the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. "I don't really put any pressure on myself and neither do my family or friends. I think it's just [that] I don't want to disappoint Canada, which sounds weird and sounds really cheesy, but going into the next Olympics [in 2020], I don't want people to be disappointed in me if I don't do as well as they think I'm going to do. I think there's definitely that little voice in the back of my mind that helps me when I'm doubting myself in certain races where it's just like, 'Okay, you did this at the [2016] Olympics and you did this at another meet. You can definitely do it here'. Before Rio I was just excited to go and cheer on Team Canada, but now there's almost this pressure on my shoulders. I've taught myself over the last few years to deal with that pressure and use everything I did in Rio as something to empower me." (ctvnews.com, 14 Jan 2020; cbc.ca, 15 Jul 2019)

POST-RIO STRUGGLES
She was age 16 when she won four medals at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, and says the next two years were difficult reconciling her fame with her everyday life as a teenager. "It's weird growing up and having to deal with all this stuff with swimming and then also all my normal teenager problems. I have this other side of me where I'm a swimmer and I have to act professional all the time. I guess I did stop enjoying swimming for a bit [after Rio], but it wasn't ever a thought in my mind that I wanted to quit it. I always knew I wanted to keep swimming, but there were definitely days where it was tough to get up and go to the pool." (macleans.ca, 23 Dec 2019; cbc.ca, 15 Jul 2019; torontolife.com, 18 Dec 2018)

RETURNING TO RIO
She had already left the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and had spent a day back home in Toronto, ON, Canada when the Canadian Olympic Committee called her to tell her she had been chosen to be their flag bearer for the closing ceremony of the 2016 Games. "They called me a day later saying, 'You're the flag bearer, you need to fly back tomorrow morning'. I was like, 'Okay, fine', so then I flew back." (cbc.ca, 15 Jul 2019)

Milestones

At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro she became the first Canadian from any sport to win four medals at a single summer Olympic Games, and the first female Canadian swimmer to win four career Olympic medals, equalling male Canadian swimmer Victor Davis who won four from 1984 to 1988. (SportsDeskOnline, 17 Feb 2020)

At the 2016 Games she also became the youngest female Canadian athlete from any sport to win a gold medal at the summer Olympic Games when she triumphed in the 100m freestyle at age 16 years and 59 days. (SportsDeskOnline, 17 Feb 2020)

When she and teammate Taylor Ruck won bronze as part of the Canadian women's 4x100m freestyle relay team at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, they became the first athletes born in the 21st century to win an Olympic medal for any nation. (SportsDeskOnline, 12 May 2021)
Legend
:
Silver Medal
:
Bronze Medal
:
Gold Medal Event
:
Silver Medal Event
:
Bronze Medal Event
Timing and scoring provided by OMEGA. Results powered by Atos