Toronto teen making quite the splash in Rio pool
RIO DE JANEIRO— After she touched the wall and gulped for air for a few seconds, not sure where she finished, Penny Oleksiak turned around and saw it. Second. Silver. Oh my God.
Her face bloomed and she looked into the crowd and all she could see was Canadian flags and faces that swam together and in the middle, her dad, looking at his daughter and beaming, so proud. He was standing with her family — mom, brother, sister — but for a second, he was all she could see.
She blew them a kiss. She is 16 years old. It was her second Olympic medal in 24 hours. Before the Canadian trials she didn’t think she would make the team.
It’s OK if you feel old. We all feel old, eventually. We were all young once, too, but not like this.
“I was definitely nervous a few hours ago,” said Oleksiak, the Toronto native, after winning silver in the 100-metre butterfly in a world junior record of 56.46.
“I was even shaking in my hotel room and everything. I think 10 minutes before the race I wasn’t nervous at all, because I knew I had my coaches’ support, and my teammates’ support. They all told me I just have to be here to have a fun time, because I still have the next Olympics to medal and everything, and it just took my nerves away.”
The next Olympics could be a show, but this was, too. Saturday night Oleksiak swam the anchor leg in the 4x100 freestyle relay, following fellow 16-year-old Taylor Ruck for bronze. It was like seeing the future, now. Ask Ruck who she admired as a kid. Go ahead, ask her.
“When I was little, probably 12, I saw Missy Franklin on TV, and knew that’s what I wanted to be when I grew up,” says Ruck, 16.
Missy Franklin. You know, from the last Olympics.
“Missy Franklin, I know,” said relay teammate Chantal Van Landeghem of Winnipeg, 22. “They make me feel so old.”
Ruck is an imported Canadian — she was born in Kelowna, but her parents left before she turned one and she grew up in Arizona.
Oleksiak is a Beaches kid, and a star. She has always been able to finish strong, and she explains it by saying she just gives everything she has at the end so that she won’t regret it, afterwards.
Sunday, Oleksiak started in Lane 2. She was third at the turn. She closed like a champion, breaking her own world junior record, finishing ahead of everyone but world-record setter Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden. Go ahead, feel old.
“I think (the earlier nervousness) was just the fact that the relay medalled last night, and I thought if I don’t medal tonight, I’m going to let down Canada,” said Oleksiak. “I think that Canada would have still had my back even if I didn’t medal, and having that support really helped get rid of my nerves.”
She will be treasured by Canada now, the way she and Ruck are by their older teammates. She shouldn’t have worried, but that’s teenagers for you.
“Sometimes it is like babysitting,” said relay teammate Michelle Williams of Toronto, 25. “I mean, when you look at them you don’t really realize that they’re young, and then you realize that they’re going to go back to school in September, and they’re in high school, and they’re going to show off their medals to their high school friends.
“I learn different phrases that kids use every day, like Bless Up, I learned that one from Penny, that means I’m so happy, I’m so grateful. Or, It’s So Lit. I’m sure you know that one. Really, I didn’t know them until Penny came around.”
“(Penny) tells me what music to listen to,” said Van Landeghem. “Not top 40. She gets mad at me if I listen to top 40. Anything you can hear on the radio is not cool to listen to.”
Penny gets called “child” by her elder teammates, and ask Ruck to describe her relay teammates, and she feels . . . oh, let’s not say blessed, or bless up.
“Michelle, she’s just the nicest person I’ve ever met, she’s definitely someone that I look up to a lot, and I just take away so much from her, and Chantal, she’s also so nice, and she’s just amazing, and I just look up to her so much too. And Sandrine (Mainville), she’s amazing, she holds so well under pressure, and I really look up to that, and Penny, she’s just like my sidekick — no, not my sidekick, that’s wrong — my partner in crime. That’s what I meant. And yeah, it’s just amazing.”
Two 16-year-olds, two medals. It is amazing.
“I’m rooming with Penny in the village, and she’s just been so amazing with her composure, not letting it get to her head,” said Williams. “And really, we get the opportunity to learn from the young ones, because even though they haven’t been through this before, they don’t really worry about it.”
“In all seriousness, they’ve reminded me to keep having fun this year, not to put too much pressure on myself, just because it’s an Olympic year,” says Van Landeghem. “For instance, just because it’s an Olympic final, doesn’t mean you have to treat it very differently.”
It’s OK if you feel old. We all feel old, eventually. Some things, though, make you feel older and younger at the same time.