Penny Oleksiak had a breakthrough meet at the 2016 Canadian Olympic Trials last week, qualifying for her first Olympic team at just 15-years-old.
She started things off with a win in the 100m butterfly, breaking the Canadian record with a time of 56.99. After that, Oleksiak finished second to Brittany MacLean in the 200m freestyle. To finish off the meet, she clocked in a 53.31 to break the world junior record in the 100m freestyle as well as the Canadian record.
Although she’s a rookie, Oleksiak will have the busiest schedule of any Canadian at the Rio Olympic Games.
THE CANADIAN ROSTER
*Note: a name in italics means first time Olympian
Men
- Javier Acevedo – 100 backstroke
- Ryan Cochrane – 400 freestyle, 1500 freestyle
- Ashton Baumann – 200 breaststroke
- Santo Condorelli – 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 4×100 freestyle relay
- Yuri Kisil – 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 4×100 freestyle relay
- Evan Van Moerkerke – 4×100 freestyle relay
- Markus Thormeyer – 4×100 freestyle relay
Women
- Brittany MacLean – 200 freestyle, 400 freestyle, 800 freestyle, 4×200 freestyle relay
- Penny Oleksiak – 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 4×100 freestyle relay, 4×200 freestyle relay, 4×100 medley relay
- Noemie Thomas – 100 butterfly, *(4×100 medley relay)
- Kylie Masse – 100 back, 4×100 medley relay
- Dominique Bouchard – 100 backstroke
- Sydney Pickrem – 200 IM, 400 IM
- Emily Overholt – 400 IM
- Kierra Smith – 100 breaststroke, 200 breaststroke, 4×100 medley relay
- Rachel Nicol – 100 breaststroke
- Audrey Lacroix – 200 butterfly
- Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson – 200 IM
- Chantal Van Landeghem – 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 4×100 freestyle relay *(4×100 medley relay)
- Martha McCabe – 200 breaststroke
- Hilary Caldwell – 200 backstroke
- Michelle Williams – 50 freestyle, 4×100 freestyle relay
- Katerine Savard – 4×200 freestyle relay
- Kennedy Goss – 4×200 freestyle relay
- Sandrine Mainville – 4×100 freestyle relay
- Taylor Ruck – 4×200 freestyle relay
Coaching Staff
- High Performance Director John Atkinson
- Ben Titley
- Tom Johnson
- Steve Price
- Linda Keifer
- Ryan Mallette
- Kevin Thorburn
Ms. Oleksiak was a joy to watch racing – her freestyle was exceptionally smooth and powerful, with a slight Phelps-Ledecky lope, great stroke length and super-strong kick. Really looking forward to seeing what she does at Rio and over the next few years. I suspect she will be a principal challenger to the 200 freestyle world leaders, if not this summer, then over the next few years.