Penny Oleksiak,
Next-door neighbour in the Beach says medallist always loved to swim
16, flashes her silver medal Sunday night in Rio, her second medal in 24 hours. She learned to swim in her neighbour’s pool in Toronto’s Beach. Story, A3
Penny Oleksiak swims in pools the world over, faster than nearly every other human. Millions of people have watched her do it.
But it’s one pool, tucked away behind the other half of her family’s semi-detached house in the Beach where she grew up, that stands out above all the others.
It was there that she learned to swim and where she discovered her love of the water. It’s Marie Cooper’s pool. She can recall Penny and her granddaughter having the time of their lives in that pool. “I would put them both out in the morning, and away they (went) . . . they’re both good swimmers,” Cooper said.
Just how good, Cooper couldn’t have predicted. When she was 9, Penny told her parents how much she loved swimming in that pool.
“I was just a 9-year-old girl who liked swimming. When I told my parents that I enjoyed it, my dad said, ‘OK, you should try doing it competitively,’ ” she told Metro News.
For context, that was after the Beijing Olympics. Seven years later, Penny is an Olympic silver (in 100metre butterfly) and bronze (in 4x100 metre freestyle relay) medallist at the Rio Summer Games.
Cooper’s pool is still part of her life, the neighbour said, as Penny and her family still live next door and visit often. “She just had her 16th birthday, and they still used the pool,” she said.
In fact, almost all of her birthday parties have been at that pool, Cooper said. Usually, Penny and her family, and a few friends, hang around and swim like they did as kids, though Penny is now about three times taller, standing at 6-foot-1.
The wins have transformed Penny from relative unknown to household name, especially in her neighbourhood, the Beach, whose residents are proud to have one of their own carrying Canada’s medal count in the first days of the Olympics. Mayor John Tory told TV station CP24 on Monday he would love to hold a celebration for Penny.
But none of her teachers or coaches are surprised, least of all Bill O’Toole, one of her earliest coaches.
In 2013, O’Toole had come to the swim meet at the Toronto Swim Club with another girl as his ringer, who he thought was “pretty good.” Surprisingly, the girl placed second, and when O’Toole went to see who had beaten her, he came face to face with Penny.
Right then, he knew he had to coach her. “Penny got out of the water, and I looked at her, and I thought ‘Oh my goodness, that’s an athlete.’ ”
O’Toole came over to the Toronto Swim Club to coach, and got his wish. Penny was 13 and already breaking national age records.
He said everything about Penny, from her family’s athletic history to her work ethic, told him she was destined for Olympic medals.
“She’s extremely talented. She’s got that X-factor . . . she’s naturally inclined to race. She’s smart and hard working. She’s got all the things you want to see in an athlete,” he said.
While Penny is fulfilling her dreams in Rio, neighbours and teachers at home in Toronto remember her as a down-to-earth, funny and driven girl who was destined to become a great athlete.
Penny, who turned 16 June 13, now attends Monarch Park Collegiate. She previously attended Kew Beach Public School and Glen Ames Senior Public School. Known as “the child,” she is the youngest member of Canada’s Olympic team in Rio de Janeiro.
Penny comes from an athletic family. Her older brother Jamie plays defence for the NHL’s Dallas Stars, while another older brother, Jake, played NCAA hockey. Hayley, her older sister, is a rower for Northeastern University. Her father Richard was a multi-sport athlete, and her mother Alison was also a swimmer.
Cooper now follows Penny mostly on TV, but the two families are still close. A key hangs in Cooper’s kitchen, so if a member of the Oleksiak family forgets theirs — and Penny is often that person — Cooper can let them in. Cooper also makes sure to come over and congratulate the family whenever Penny wins another medal. She’s struck by how “nonchalant” Oleksiak is after every win.
“But that’s Penny,” Cooper said. “I don’t think she really expected to win at her age.”
The humble attitude is something other people notice about her. Penny took one in-person class at Monarch Collegiate last semester — the rest had to be taken online because of the demands of her training. The class was, aptly, a fitness class, and her teacher, Bryan McAlpine, says she was always humble about her international success, even in a class where she was obviously the best.
It’s enough to make people forget she’s a 16-year-old.
She still travels with a grey blankie that she says is her good luck charm.
But on Sunday night, it was her medals, not her blankie, that she couldn’t sleep without.
“I couldn’t fall asleep. I had to hold them while I was sleeping, which is kind of lame,” Penny said with a laugh. “But it helped me fall asleep.” With files from Star staff and wire services