Olympic star Penny Oleksiak under suspension and here's what that means for her career
One of Canada’s most iconic Olympic athletes could face a career-altering blow.
Swimmer Penny Oleksiak, the 25-year-old Toronto native who is tied with Andre de Grasse for the most Olympic medals of any Canadian athlete, is currently under a provisional suspension for missing information regarding her location for drug tests over the past year.
Though many of Oleksiak’s contemporaries — including 18-year-old Olympic star Summer McIntosh — are at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, Oleksiak has been sidelined since news of her whereabouts violation first came to light earlier this month.
“Penelope Oleksiak committed three whereabouts failures within a 12-month period between October 2024 and June 2025,” the International Testing Agency wrote in a statement posted on Friday.
“The athlete has been notified of the case and has accepted a voluntary provisional suspension pending the resolution of this matter. She has the right to provide her explanations as to the circumstances of each whereabouts failure. Given that the case is underway, there will be no further comments during the ongoing proceedings.”
The suspension could end up being a multi-year period if a sufficient explanation is not provided.
Earlier this month, Oleksiak stated that the case is merely an administrative error and is not related to a failed drug test.
“I want to emphasize that this whereabouts case does not involve any banned substance; it’s about whether I updated my information correctly,” Oleksiak wrote in a statement on her Instagram page earlier this month. “I am and always have been a clean athlete and will be making no further comment at this time.”
Swimming Canada has backed up Oleksiak’s claims, calling her “a clean athlete who made an administrative mistake.”
Is Oleksiak at risk of losing her Olympic medals?
Oleksiak has seven Olympic medals to her name, achieved in 2016 and 2021, but was held off the podium in 2024 at her most recent appearance at the Summer Games.
Given that Oleksiak’s reported whereabouts failures do not overlap with her medal-winning years, the IOC and World Aquatics would be unlikely to strip Oleksiak of her past accomplishments even if her suspension is upheld.
But a possible multi-year suspension could deliver a big blow to the career trajectory of Oleksiak, who will be 28 for the next Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028, particularly if she misses multiple top-level competitions in the next few years.
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