Oleksiak joins teen dream team
Penny Oleksiak is just 16 and already has two medals at these Olympics: Silver in the 100-metre butterfly and bronze in the 4x100-metre freestyle relay. Oleksiak has at least two more races here: The 100-metre freestyle and the 4x200-metre freestyle relay.
Here’s a look at some of Canada’s other top young Olympians, by age:
13 Robin Corsiglia
Canada’s youngest-ever Olympic medallist, Corsiglia was just 13 years (and 341 days) old when she won bronze in the 4x100metre medley relay at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. She swam the breaststroke leg with Wendy Hogg (backstroke), Susan Sloan (butterfly) and Anne Jardin (freestyle).
14 Nancy Garapick
The Halifax native won a pair of bronze medals at the Montreal Olympics — in the 100- and 200-metre backstroke — setting an Olympic record in the former during her heats. In both, she finished behind East Germans later implicated in a doping scandal.
16 Cheryl Gibson
She celebrated her 17th birthday during the 1976 Olympic Games, but Gibson was still 16 when she won a silver medal in the 400-metre individual medley.
17 Becky Smith
Less than two months separate Gibson (born on July 28, 1959) and Smith (born June 3, 1959) and the two ended up sharing the 400-metre IM podium in Montreal with Smith winning bronze.
17 George Genereux
Born in Saskatoon, Genereux is the youngest Olympic gold medallist in Canadian history. He won gold in trap shooting at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, after which he was recognized with the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s athlete of the year.
17 Elaine Tanner
“Mighty Mouse” was just 17 when she won three medals at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City: Silver in the 100- and 200-metre backstroke and bronze in the 4x100metre freestyle relay.
18 Jane Bell
Competing at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, the sprinter won gold in the women’s 4x100-metre relay — with Fanny Rosenfeld, Ethel Smith and Myrtle Cook — making her the youngest female Olympic gold medallist in Canadian history.
19 Alexandre Despatie
The popular diver from Quebec didn’t win his first Olympic medal until the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, when he finished second in the three-metre springboard at age 19.
19 Barbara Ann Scott
The Ottawa native was 19 when she won gold in women’s figure skating at the 1948 Olympics in St. Moritz. She had already won the world, European and North American titles in 1947.
She won the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s top athlete three times — 1945, 1947, 1948 — the first time at age 17.
19 Justine Dufour-Lapointe
The freestyle skier was a month shy of 20 when she landed at the top of the Olympic moguls podium in Sochi alongside her sister, Chloe.