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Penny Oleksiak Obliterates Canadian Record In Come-From-Behind Victory

After taking the top seed in the 100m butterfly this morning and closing in on Katerine Savard’s Canadian record, 15-year-old Penny Oleksiak brought the heat once more in order to smash the Canadian record and secure her spot on her first Olympic team.

In a come-from-behind fashion Oleksiak passed both Noemie Thomas and Katerine Savard in order to touch the wall in 56.99, taking 0.28 seconds off Savard’s Canadian record and claiming gold. Oleksiak’s racing strategy mimicked a 2008 Phelps, coming from behind to win the race by just 0.03 seconds over Noemie Thomas’ 57.02.

The time ranks the new Canadian record holder as the third fastest swimmer this season in the event behind only world record holder Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden and China’s Xinyi Chen.

2015-2016 LCM Women 100 FLY

SarahSWE
SJOSTROM
08/07
55.48 *WR*OR
2Penny
OLEKSIAK
CAN56.46 *WJR08/07
3Kelsi
WORRELL
USA56.4806/27
4Dana
VOLLMER
USA56.5608/06
5Xinyi
Chen
CHN56.7208/07
View Top 26»

In just one day Oleksiak took a total of 1.45 seconds off her personal best time – showing that she’s on her game at Trials which suggests she could qualify in multiple events.

Oleksiak will be swimming the 50, 100 and 200m freestyles later in the competition. The 100m freestyle is her best event out of the three where she has the biggest shot at earning another spot on the Olympic team.

Oleksiak will need to finish in the top four in order to get a relay spot, and top two and under the FINA ‘A’ standard to make the team individually.

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Badar alam
8 years ago

i feel like they have a shot in both medley and freestyle relays at the olympics

Hswimmer
8 years ago

It’s not all of the sudden, they were good in 2012, just got even better since then.

thomaslurzfan
8 years ago

Its really surprising how good canadian women became all of a sudden, the same is true for canadian athletics …

Hswimmer
8 years ago

If she chooses CAL, I might cry..

Dee
8 years ago

As I said on here recently – Ben Titley has transformed Canadian sprinting on the women’s side. His girls are flying. Michelle Williams, Van Landeghem, Oleksiak and Mainville… He could have four ladies under 54 this week… All have made huge strides under him. He guided Halsall & Tancock to their 2009 peaks too.

Superb & underrated coach… Such a loss for British Swimming.

anonymoose
8 years ago

so thats a new WJR right??

GR swimmer
Reply to  anonymoose
8 years ago

Not even close.

bobo gigi
8 years ago

If she has the same time drop in her 100 free, she will swim 53 low!

bobo gigi
8 years ago

56.98 at 15. That’s impressive. Oleksiak is a name to remember.
And very high level final with Thomas second in 57.02.

GR swimmer
Reply to  bobo gigi
8 years ago

Should she stay in Canada or swim NCAA and train under great coaching of Stanford/CAL/Georgia/Florida/USC?

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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