Canadian Olympic swimmer Penny Oleksiak is thanking all her supporters after what has been a tough couple of years for her.
The 24-year-old Oleksiak is coming off her third career Summer Olympic Games appearance in Paris, the first in which she was unable to come away with a single medal.
The only event she competed in was as a member of Canada’s 4×100-metre relay swim team, where she helped the team qualify for the final before being replaced by Paris 2024 standout Summer McIntosh. Canada wound up finishing just off the podium in fourth place.
A couple of weeks removed from Paris 2024, Oleksiak took to social media to thank her fans for sticking by her side over the last couple of years.
“Thank you so much to all my sponsors and supporters through this Olympics, without them, I wouldn’t of even been here after my last couple years,” Oleksiak wrote. “Thank you to everyone who sent kind messages, they mean more than you know as I’ve been processing this Olympic run.”
Oleksiak broke onto the Canadian sports scene as a 16-year-old at the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics, winning four medals including a gold in the 100-metre freestyle. This made her the country’s most decorated Olympian in a single Games, an honour that has since been surpassed by McIntosh, who captured three gold and one silver in Paris.
This brought her total Olympic medal count up to seven, a number that only she and sprinter Andre De Grasse have been able to achieve for Canada.
She continued to make her country proud at the Tokyo 2020 Games, winning three medals and setting a national record as a member of the bronze medal-winning 4×100-metre relay team.
Preparations going into Paris hit a bit of a snag for Oleksiak as she struggled to put up Olympic-qualifying times after having recovered from knee surgery.
Despite the disappointing times, Oleksiak was still named to the Canadian relay team.
It certainly was a much quieter Summer Olympic Games for Oleksiak this time around, but there is no doubt that Canadian fans are still rooting for her to return to form in time for the LA 2028 Games.