Penny Oleksiak

Personal information
Full name	Penelope Oleksiak
National team	Canada
Born	June 13, 2000 (age 16)[1] Toronto, Ontario
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
	68 kg (150 lb)

Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Freestyle, butterfly
Club	Toronto Swim Club
Coach	Bill O'Toole

Penelope "Penny" 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). 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 brother is NHL player Jamie Oleksiak.

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. First indications of great potential for Oleksiak were identified when she won 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.

Her next goal was to qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics 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". 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 record in the 100 m butterfly en route to the Olympics in that event.

2016 Summer Olympics

Oleksiak competed on Canada's Olympic team for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. 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. 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."

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."

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   (along with Katerine Savard, Taylor Ruck, and Brittany MacLean). Oleksiak's leg time of 1:54.94 was 4th fastest in the relay, behind the three medalists of the 200 m freestyle.

On day six, Oleksiak won the gold medal in the 100m freestyle. She tied with Simone Manuel setting an Olympic record of 52.70. 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 after January 1, 2000 to win an individual Olympic gold medal.

Personal life

Oleksiak is the youngest of four siblings, and sister of NHL defenceman Jamie Oleksiak, who plays for the Dallas Stars.  She attends Monarch Park Collegiate Institute in Toronto, Ontario. The family has an athletic tradition: father Richard lettered in track at Colgate University, mother Alison was also a runner who only missed the 1980 Canadian Olympic Trials because of the U.S.-led boycott, older sister Hayley is a rower at Northeastern, and older brother Jake played college hockey.

Personal bests

Long course (50 m pool)

Event	Time	Venue	Date	Notes
100 m butterfly	56.46	Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Rio de Janeiro	7 August 2016	WJR, NR
100 m freestyle	52.70	Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Rio de Janeiro	11 August 2016	OR*, WJR,AR

• *52.70 tied for OR and gold with American swimmer Simone Manuel.

Medal record

Event	1st	2nd	3rd
Olympic Games	1	1	2
World Junior Championships	1	4	1
Total	2	5	3

Women's Swimming

Representing Canada

Olympic Games

Gold: 2016 Rio de Janeiro - 100 m freestyle

Silver: 2016 Rio de Janeiro - 100 m butterfly

Bronze: 2016 Rio de Janeiro -4x100 m freestyle 

Bronze: 2016 Rio de Janeiro - 4x200 m freestyle

World Junior Championships

Gold: 2015 Singapore - 4x100 m mixed free

Silver: 2015 Singapore - 100 m freestyle 

Silver: 2015 Singapore - 100 m butterfly

Silver: 2015 Singapore - 50 m butterfly

Silver: 2015 Singapore - 4x200 m freestyle 

Bronze: 2015 Singapore - 4x100 m freestyle