2020 TOKYO SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES
- When: Pool swimming: Saturday, July 24 – Sunday, August 1, 2021
- Open Water swimming: Wednesday, August 4 – Thursday, August 5, 2021
- Where: Olympic Aquatics Centre / Tokyo, Japan
- Heats: 7 PM / Semifinals & Finals: 10:30 AM (Local time)
- Full aquatics schedule
- SwimSwam Event Previews
- Entry Lists
- Live Results
- Day 8 Finals Heat Sheet
Penny Oleksiak and fellow Canadian women took bronze in the women’s 4×100 medley with a 3:52.60 to Australia’s 3:51.60 for gold and the USA’s 3:51.73 for silver. This mark’s Oleksiak’s 7th podium finish at an Olympic Games to relay to make her the most decorated Canadian Olympian in history.
Oleksiak won 4 medals at the Rio 2016 Games, taking gold in the 100 freestyle, silver in the 100 butterfly, and bronze in the 4×100 and 4×200 freestyle relay. Oleksiak added 3 medals in Tokyo in a 200 freestyle bronze, 4×100 freestyle silver, and 4×100 medley bronze. Oleksiak also race the women’s 100 freestyle individually, placing 4th overall.
Oleksiak has won 7 Olympic medals in her career to surpass Cindy Klassen and Clara Hughes who have won 6 medals each. Klassen won her 6 medals at 2002 at 2006 Winter Olympics in speed-skating. Her best finish at an Olympics was in 2006 where she took gold in the 1500 and added 2 silvers (team pursuit/1000m) and 2 bronzes (3000m/5000m) there, having won bronze in the 3000 in 2002.
Clara Hughes on the other hand actually won her 6 Olympic medals in 2 different sports at 2 different versions of the Olympics. Hughes first won 2 bronze medals in road cycling for Canada at the 1996 Olympics and then made the switch to speed skating where she added another 4 medals between 2002 and 2010.
While Penny Oleksiak broke the individual medal record for Canada, the 3:52.60 time by the team marked a new Canadian record. It was nearly a second under the former NR in the event of 3:53.58 which the exact same lineup of women hit at the 2019 World Championships.
Split Comparison
| Tokyo 2020 | Gwangju 2019 | |
| Masse (Backstroke) | 57.90 | 59.12 |
| Pickrem (Breaststroke) | 1:07.17 | 1:06.42 |
| MacNeil (butterfly) | 55.27 | 55.56 |
| Oleksiak (freestyle) | 52.26 | 52.48 |
| Total | 3:52.60 | 3:53.58 |
Oleksiak swam the freestyle leg for the Canadian contingent, splitting a 52.26 anchor leg which was the second-fastest in the field to Cate Campbell’s 52.11 for Australia. She rounded out the race for Canada, following Kylie Masse‘s 57.90 backstroke leg, Sydney Pickrem‘s 1:07.17 breaststroke, and Maggie MacNeil‘s 55.27 butterfly. Both Masse and MacNeil’s respective backstroke and butterfly legs were the fastest swims of that stroke in the heat.
This marks Kylie Masse‘s 4th Olympic medal, adding to her 2016 100 backstroke bronze, 2020 100/200 backstroke silver. MacNeil has now won 3 Olympic medals as she took gold earlier on in Tokyo in the 100 butterfly and silver in the women’s 4×100 freestyle. As for Pickrem, this is her first-ever Olympic medal.
It is not about swimming, but as an American I would like to congratulate the the Canadian Women’s soccer team for their semi-final win over the Americans.
And the win against Sweden in the Finals.
Congratulations on the wonderful meet & swims, Penny & Team Canada!
Canada: Tokyo G1 S3 B2 (6) Rio G1 S1 B 4 (6)
What do people think of Canada’s ‘progress’ between 2016 and 2020…I really thought they would build, but they actually have slipped little….?
No. It’s just that Australia has moved up a lot faster.
Kylie Masse lost both backstroke to Australia.
How is it a slip? They earned the same number of medals, and moved up places in a lot of them. Even when they weren’t earning medals and finishing 4th (100 FR and the 4×200 relay) they were breaking Canadian records, which is forward momentum
They performed brilliantly and improved from Rio. They upgraded two medals from bronze to silver. Multiple fourth place finishes. Multiple national records. A men’s team that is improving. They did all this after facing the most significant restrictions in the world due to COVID. I can’t wait to see what they do going forward as Summer McIntosh continues to improve and with a healthy Taylor Ruck.
I don’t see how that counts as slipping. Team Canada won the same number of medals, but more favourable distribution (i.e., more silver medals), and the women’s team had three fourth-place finishes, whereas they didn’t finish fourth anywhere in Rio, they either medaled or were fifth or further back. And they managed that effectively without Taylor Ruck, whose health/training problems undermined the team’s chances in the 4×200 in particular.
Moreover, the winning of the major medals (i.e., above bronze) was a lot more evenly shared here than it was in 2016, where Penny was the only star.
Canada hasn’t had 3 different swimmers capture individual medals … since … 1984? (benefitting from the Eastern Bloc boycott).
edit: oops – Masse-Caldwell-Oleskiak won individual medals in Rio.
As I remarked in the Finals thread, I think Penny ended up being one of the biggest beneficiaries of the pandemic delay (other than the people who wouldn’t have been able to go otherwise). That 200 m bronze, in particular, it’s hard to see happening if Tokyo 2020 was actually in 2020.
I’m glad that she did break the record in Tokyo, because otherwise the specter of that would have hung over her for the next three years.
Next mission: to win an individual World medal, finally.
Definition of an OLYMPIC swimmer. Makes sense that she’s signed by MP along with Kalisz. All purely focused on the games and nothing else.
Mac Neil has 3 medals at these games, she was also on the 4×100 Fr relay that won silver
And as much as I would love to see toad cycling an Olympic event, unfortunately the great Clara Hughes competed in ROAD cycling 😂
Now I want to see TOAD cycling
Sydney Pickrem = GOAT status with that post race interview
What did she say?
“i was absolutely……sh*tting myself”
Congratulations Penny!