Four-time Olympic medalist Penny Oleksiak will rejoin her home team, the Toronto Swim Club, after two successful years training under Ben Titley at the High Performance Centre – Ontario. The news was announced by Swimming Canada this morning via press release.
She will be back under the tutelage of TSC head coach Bill O’Toole, who coached Oleksiak as an age-grouper up until the end of the 2014-15 season. Under O’Toole, she won six medals at the 2015 World Junior Championships before joining the HPC for the Olympic year.
“I’m excited to be returning to the Toronto Swim Club to continue my training and I look forward to future collaborations with coach Ben Titley as I prepare for Tokyo 2020,” Oleksiak said. “I would like to thank the people at the High Performance Centre – Ontario, and in particular my head coach, for their invaluable contribution to my successes these past two years.”
“I’m very excited to be working with Penny again,” O’Toole said. “We have always had a great relationship and shared in many successes. I am looking forward to working with Swimming Canada to advance Penny’s career on the international scene.”
Swimming Canada High Performance Director John Atkinson said they’ll continue to fully support Oleksiak and are familiar working with O’Toole.
“Swimming Canada Senior Coach Martyn Wilby and I are already visiting Toronto in September and we will now work on planning for Penny with her coach Bill and help develop her plan,” Atkinson said. “We know Bill very well. Swimming Canada and I have worked with Bill in the lead up to the World Junior Championships in 2015, and on coach development programs. We have a great working relationship with Bill.”
Titley spoke about the great success they’ve had over the last two years, and that his door will always remain open to support Oleksiak as she progresses.
“Penny is a great athlete and we achieved great things together in the Swimming Canada High Performance Centre – Ontario. I would like to thank all those who have made the last few years of Penny’s swimming so successful, including her current and past teammates, and the staff here at the HPC-O,” Titley said. “I wish her and her coach all the best. I look forward to working with them on national teams and know she can do great things in the future. My door will always remain open to supporting this young woman as she progresses.”
Despite the departure of Oleksiak, the HPC – Ontario remains stacked with talent, with two-time Olympic medalist Taylor Ruck recently joining the team that already featured Olympic medalist Michelle Toro and 2017 World Championship team members Kayla Sanchez and Rebecca Smith. Ruck, Sanchez and Smith teamed up with Oleksiak at the recent World Junior Championships to go 3-for-3 on the female relays, all in junior world record fashion.
Not sure if anyone will read this, seeing how this article is a full week old now, but this local news article explains why she’s moving back to the Toronto Swim Club – http://www.metronews.ca/sports/2017/08/31/penny-oleksiak-returning-to-former-toronto-coach.html
Long story short, it’s much closer to where she lives, whereas the High Performance Center was on the other end of town. Toronto traffic can be rough, and apparently there were days last year where she was working on homework or studying until 3 am, only to get back to swim practice at 7am. Yeah … that’s a pretty good reason to switch. Kylie Masse is apparently training there too, so Penny will still be training with members of the national team either way.
The traffic sucks in Toronto and perhaps the commute is a little easier. The beaches to 401 Scarborough must be an exhausting commute. Penny is approaching her senior year in high school and I am sure the extra time saved is well needed.
She will be well supported. Mental burnout at her age is a real issue.
She may well be back at the HPC when in university in time for Tokyo.
Worst case scenario thought is that it reminds me of an American multi Olympic medalist who was at a high performance location, had an injury, had what critics called a sub par year, went back to her age group coach and then the bottom fell out.
Not surprising. When you have a subpar year at such a young age there’s inevitable rationalization and semi-panic, even if you try to conceal it. This is like Lydia Ko changing coaches and caddies. Well, maybe not Ko and caddies. Otherwise Penny would have changed 20 times in a couple of years.
Definitely not call that a subpar year.
At this age, better to make sure you finish high school and have a normal life experience than to shave off .5 seconds 3 years out from the next Olympics…..
She neared her personal bests after a shoulder injury that delayed her training for 3 months. She finished 6th in the fastest women’s 100m freestyle final in history, and broke the Canadian Record in the 50m butterfly three times. I wouldn’t call that a sub-par year at all.
Strange move. Last week she was saying she was at world jrs because she wanted to be with the girls she is training with towards 2020. Guess it was more of a goodbye meet than a team building one.
Bill is a great coach, but she is giving up a lot of resources, hopefully it works.
My guess is it was her parents & the arrangements were put in place whilst WJRs ongoing maybe without her knowing .
Maybe parents missed the memo about the relay working together.
I highly doubt it was her parents decision…….parent support maybe but not decision. Be realistic.
Cross town move… they can still get together a couple of times a month
Sounds like penny wants a more balanced life according to an article in the newspaper. She’ll be swimming at the u of t pool with the tsc and going to school close by.
Any word on whether Penny will do the U of Toronto academic approach like Kylie Maase?
Does anyone know why Penny Oleksiak is leaving HPC-O?