She has won more medals at a single Summer Olympics than any other Canadian and she is the first Olympic champion from any country to be born after January 1, 2000.
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Just imagine what she’ll be like as a 20-year-old.
Though the reality is that not everybody will be able to replicate Oleksiak’s extraordinary success, said Murphy, he still thinks people should try the sport, which can benefit people of all ages.
All six pool medals in Rio were won by women, led by 16-year-old Penny Oleksiak of Toronto, who won a gold, a silver and two bronze medals.
More guys took up swimming after Michael Phelps of the US won several gold medals at the 2004 Olympics.
Since her string of wins, Oleksiak’s Twitter following has swelled from about 700 to more than 40,000 thousand – including a famous fellow Torontonian, Drake. She’ll be back in class “on September 6, I think”, she said.
Canadian Olympic Committee officials won’t reveal the name of the flag-bearer for next Sunday’s closing ceremonies until much closer to the end of these Rio Games but Oleksiak would be the odds-on favourite of the moment.
There was no storybook ending to a storybook Olympics for Canadian swimming sensation Penny Oleksiak.
“I feel like, personally, I was focussing more on just finishing the race to finish the meet rather than racing the race”, Oleksiak admitted. “But getting in your own lane to compete makes it all worthwhile”. I think this team was here to win.
Michael Phelps is having a decent Olympics so far, having added three gold medals to his collection through the first five days of the Games. We’ve been very upfront with any of the coaches she’s had over the last few years that she is a teenager, and there’s going to be points in the year when she’s going to want to go to prom, and she’s going to want to hang out with her friends, and she’s going to want to eat a lot of doughnuts, because she loves them, and that’s not in their plan. Penny’s performance in the women’s 100-metre freestyle swimming event earned her the top spot on the podium. Though a 16-year-old such as Oleksiak can excel early, that’s less likely to happen in men’s swimming.
“Now, this is usually the time of year when we get that anyway, but I do notice a little more buzz”, he said. From cupping to #PhelpsFace to having now won more gold medals in his career than 175 countries ever have, he’s also garnered no shortage of attention.
A big Oleksiak fan, Adelaide was overjoyed when the teenager won Canada’s first gold.
“It takes longer to build a male team”, Atkinson said.
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It has to be about protecting her as a person, right? “I’m pretty proud of myself with my other races”.
