REFOCUSED OLEKSIAK BACK IN TOP FORM
Teen swimming hero of Rio 2016 ‘excited’ about Tokyo
It was late July 2018 and
EDMONTON Penny Oleksiak needed a mental reset, not a trip to the Pan Pacific Championships, for which she had just qualified during trials in Edmonton.
So the Toronto-based swimmer, who had burst onto the scene so famously at the Rio Olympics two years earlier, sought out Swimming Canada’s high performance director John Atkinson. She had a request, a plan and a definite need.
“It was obvious to me, at that point, that she did need a break,” Atkinson said. “She needed to take that time to be ready to recommit in September of 2018 to rejoining the High Performance Centre in Ontario.
“I think that was a turning point. That was a critical moment and we supported her. To me, it was clear that was needed. It was never a doubt. We needed to support a young person who is such a great talent and such a great athlete for Canada.
“And I think she’s really worked hard over the last 18 months to turn it around and refocus, and for want of a better expression, fall back in love with the sport.”
Oleksiak is still only 19, almost four years removed from her moment in Rio. There were several moments actually, resulting in a Canadian-record four medals at a single Summer Games, and her being selected as flag bearer for the closing ceremonies. When she tied for gold in the 100m freestyle, she became Canada’s first Olympic champ since Barcelona 1992 and the youngest gold medallist in our country’s history. She added a silver in the 100m butterfly and two relay bronze medals to her tally before it was over.
What followed at home was a storm of celebrity and the attendant time management challenges. She was soaking it all up while still trying to maintain a worldclass fitness level, her motivation, and some semblance of a normal life as a teenager in high school.
She went to her first senior world championships in 2017 and made the podium in two relays, but finished fourth in the 100m fly and sixth in the 100m free, her Olympic medal events. She was also part of five gold-medal relay teams at the world juniors.
But a rather inevitable drop in performance arrived with a large thud in 2018 and provoked a concurrent search for remedies that took her away from the High Performance Centre to Florida for an extended training camp. She had won three relay silver medals at the Commonwealth Games in Australia that spring, posting topfive finishes in the 50m and 100m butterfly and 100m freestyle.
Her July meeting with Atkinson turned it all around. She got the break she needed, has kept her head above water ever since, and is a happier, more confident, more rounded athlete and person these days.
“I think it’s probably just, over the last few years, how much I’ve changed as a person and how much I’ve changed as an athlete,” Oleksiak said earlier this month. “I’ve kind of just gained a whole new confidence. I’ve done almost everything that I can, if not everything that I can, to be the best athlete and the best person I can be. So I mean, it’s nice to have a little more confidence going into this year.
“I think I definitely learned a lot over the last four years. I feel like for any kid that age in general, it’s a very different four years for them, but with (Olympic success) added on top it’s been really crazy. But no complaints. I’ve learned so much and I’ve gained so many experiences and opportunities. I couldn’t be happier to be where I am.”
She’s back at the High Performance Centre in Toronto, with coach Ben Titley.
“I really like Ben as a coach. He’s a very good coach. He’s very tough on me. He knows exactly what I need to race well and he knows me as a person very well. I’ve been around him for a long time. Going back just felt right.”
The reunion is working. She’s churning out times that will send her to Tokyo 2020 — if in fact the Olympic Games go ahead — brimming with confidence.
“I’m very happy with the way my times are coming along. Right now, all the times I have raced so far have been faster than my times at this time in 2016, so I’m pretty excited about that,” Oleksiak said.
She knows anything can happen on any day. But because she’s put in the work, she’ll be able to accept the results. And, while coming back to the Olympic stage would bring with it the kind of pressure that can crack an unprepared athlete, Oleksiak has just taken a master class in surviving expectation.
“The most difficult thing, I would probably say, is just learning how to ease the pressure, outside pressure, the pressure I put on myself, everything like that. I feel like after the performances I had (in Rio), it’s pretty easy to get down on yourself often about races, about what you’re doing,” Oleksiak said.
She leaned on a support team that included parents, friends, teammates and coaches, and she learned to fend off that pressure. And again, she did it all while handling the more routine challenges of being a teenager.
“There’s no standard textbook on how it’s going to go, and you never really know how anyone is going to act and react to certain things,” said Atkinson. “It could take a year for some athletes, three years for others, to come back from that very early success and the changes that then happen in their lives, and expectations.”
Oleksiak, an Olympic star at 16, could have another decade in the pool.
“I want to keep swimming as long as I can be great at it,” she said. “I’m trying to take advantage of the years that I have, and right now I’m happy with where I’m at and how I’m feeling in the water.”