2016 Olympic gold medalist Penny Oleksiak has signed with Phelps – Michael Phelps‘ swimwear and swimming product brand. Originally launching under the name ‘MP’ in 2014, the company re-branded under the name ‘Phelps’ earlier this year. Among those signed to the brand are 2016 Olympic silver medalist Chase Kalisz and 2012 and 2016 French Olympian Damien Joly, and French swimmer Joris Bouchaut.
Both Oleksiak and Phelps shared the news this morning on their respective Instagram accounts;
Penny Oleksiak swam to gold in the 100 freestyle final at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, tying with American Simone Manuel in a 52.70. The swim set a new Olympic record for Oleksiak and Manuel and provided Okleksiak with the world junior record and Canadian record. At the 2016 Games, Oleksiak also picked up a silver medal in the 100 butterfly (56.46) and two bronze medals in the 4×100 freestyle and 4×200 freestyle relays.
Since the 2016 Games, Oleksiak has continued to represent Canada fairly consistently including at the 2016 short course World Champs, 2017 and 2019 long course World Champs, the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Her best times in the 100 free and 100 fly, however, are still from those Rio Olympics.
In 2017, the year after the Olympics, Oleksiak dealt with a shoulder injury and also suffered a concussion when she was hit in the head with a medicine ball in the gym.
Oleksiak also competed in the International Swimming League’s debut season in 2019, swimming for the winning team, Energy Standard.
For season two, Oleksiak was not announced as a member of Energy Standard, nor was she listed on the roster for the newly founded Canadian ISL team the Toronto Titans.
Is swim swam news going to do an article on the current events in Canada? And how that May or may not be affecting trials qualifiers not attending ISL and not in a perforce centre. University of Toronto is closed until Nov 6 and Quebec is closed down. Huge group of trials qualifiers! Would love to hear swim swams input on these athletes and their circumstances:)