Penny Oleksiak is back and in great shape to win eighth Olympic medal

It has almost seemed that Penny Oleksiak has been forgotten about in the early stages of the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Despite being the most decorated Canadian Olympian in history with seven medals, all the talk about Canadian swimmers at this year’s games has focused on Summer McIntosh. The 17-year-old has already picked up three medals, including two golds. Things on Oleksiak, however, have been unusually quiet.

Before today, Oleksiak had swam in just one event, finishing fourth in the 4×100 last weekend.

Chatter around her is finally beginning to pick up, though, as Oleksiak was back swimming today and looked great doing so. The 24-year-old helped the Canadian women’s relay team — featuring Ingrid Wilm, Sophie Angus, and Mary-Sophie Harvey — win their heat and finish second overall to punch their ticket to the Olympic Finals.

“It’s been a long week building up to this,” Oleksiak told CBC reporter Devin Heroux. “Everyone’s like, ‘Where are you?’ But here I am now. I’m excited to do something tomorrow, hopefully.”

Penny Oleksiak to @Devin_Heroux on the CBC broadcast this morning:

“It’s been a long week building up to this. Everyone’s like ‘where are you?’ But here I am now. I’m excited to do something tomorrow hopefully.”

— Rob Williams (@RobTheHockeyGuy) August 3, 2024

Oleksiak was phenomenal in the event, posting a time of 52.93 seconds on the closing leg. It should serve as a huge sigh of relief for her, as she unfortunately failed to qualify for any individual events in Paris. Thanks to today’s result, however, she still has an opportunity to pick up an eighth gold medal.

The Canadian men’s medley relay team of Blake Tierney, Finlay Knox, Ilya Kharun, and Javier Acevedo also advanced to the finals. They combined for the seventh-fastest qualifying time among the eight countries advancing to the men’s final.

Both teams will look to add to Canada’s medal count tomorrow, which currently sits at 12. The women’s final will get underway at 1:26 pm ET / 10:26 am PT.

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