National Post (National Edition)
Oleksiak stays grounded
CANADA’S RIO STAR IS SETTLING BACK INTO DAILY LIFE, TAKING DRIVING TESTS AND POSING FOR SELFIES
Not everything comes easy for Penny Oleksiak, who was Canada’s breakout star in the pool at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
The first Canadian to ever win four medals at the same Summer Games, the 16-year-old Oleksiak was trying to secure her G1 driver’s licence before heading from Toronto to Windsor, Ont., on Saturday to compete for Canada at the 13th FINA World Short Course Swimming Championships.
“I got one more wrong than I should have,” Oleksiak said. “It kind of sucks.”
But she had little chance to let the disappointment soak in as she waited outside for her father to pick her up.
“Some people came up and wanted selfies,” Oleksiak said.
Her world is different since becoming a household name in August, but Canadian head coach Ben Titley is trying to do his part to make life a little more normal again for the teenage star.
“It will be challenging for the athletes we have, especially three months after Rio and especially when success came for athletes so young and trying to adjust to life,” Titley said. “For someone like (Oleksiak), getting back to school and getting back to her friends and her social circle is important.”
But part of that social circle is her friends in the pool and Canadian teammates such as Kylie Masse, who will also compete in Windsor.
Aside from chasing medals in Rio, the two also became well known for their pursuit of Drake concert tickets.
“I think we’re actually rooming together in Windsor,” said Oleksiak, who eventually got to the Drake concert with Masse. “I’ve known Kylie for so long and I love her. She’s so funny and we get along so well. We love the same music and jam to Drake and have dance parties.”
For Oleksiak, swimming the short course in Windsor will be a challenge.
“I don’t think I’ve ever raced a big event short course,” Oleksiak said.
In fact, the distance is not conducive to success for the 6-foot-1 Oleksiak, who prefers the longcourse 50-metre pools.
“For me, it takes a little bit of time to get into a rhythm and I breathe a lot,” said Oleksiak, who notes a short course relies heavily on turns and pullouts. “With 50 (metres), it gives me a chance to get in rhythm, where short course is like a 15-metre race. It’s more difficult.”
But Titley doesn’t plan to overuse Oleksiak at this meet. In fact, she will only swim one individual event and that’s the 100-metre freestyle, the event in which she won the gold medal at the Olympics, but not the 100-metre butterfly, where she won a silver medal.
Other than that, Oleksiak, who won two freestyle relay medals in Rio, will be a key cog for Canada’s relay teams in Windsor and Titley said there’s a lesson for her in that as well.
“I need her to understand,” Titley said. “Lots of other people did their job competing in (qualifying) heats (in Rio) so she didn’t have to and she could get two or three hours of rest for the semis and the final.
“Her job at this meet is to do what others did for her so that they can focus on their event. It’s a very important lesson for a young athlete to learn all of the areas involved to help her achieve success.”
The expectations for Oleksiak at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be huge, but Titley is doing his best to bring the young pool star and several of Canada’s other rising stars along slowly so they can reach their full potential.
In theory, Titley said, Oleksiak will actually peak as an athlete when she is 24 at the 2024 Summer Games, but said it’s impossible for her to come to grips with that right now.
“Time is very relative,” Titley said. “For someone like you and I, to think about four years is short term. For Penny to think about peaking at 24, it’s illogical. She can’t process that because that’s half her lifetime.
“You have to break it down to more manageable lengths of time. Six years ago, she was only learning to swim. To talk about eight years from now, she can’t fathom that. It’s one piece at a time for a 16-year-old. Not just because of the success we’ve had, but the age of the athletes we had.
“If handled correctly and they choose to stay in the sport, there’ll be many more exciting years.”
To her credit and despite her young age, Oleksiak does understand that things change over time.
“Two years ago, I thought I was a backstroker and now I can’t backstroke at all,” Oleksiak said. “I got into (butter) fly and freestyle, but we’ll see what happens.
“Just getting to race, and I love racing, so I’m excited to be in Windsor. I’m definitely going to be going to 2020 (Olympic Games). I can’t say what I’m going to do.”