Oleksiak swims just short of medal No. 7

Penny Oleksiak finished fourth in her signature event on Friday morning, pushing back her quest to break the Canadian record for career Olympic medals.

Oleksiak finished in a time of 52.59, just seven hundredths of a second behind Australia's Cate Campbell for the bronze medal. Emma McKeon of Australia won gold and Siobahn Bernadette Haughey of Hong Kong took the silver.

Oleksiak was swimming for her third medal at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, coming after a relay silver on Monday and a bronze medal in the 200-metre freestyle on Wednesday, which would have pushed her past of the six career medals of speedskater Cindy Klassen and Clara Hughes, who was a medallist in both cycling and speedskating.

The 21-year-old from Toronto was the breakout star of Rio 2016, where she won four medals — including a gold in the 100-metre freestyle — at just 16.

That performance surprised even her coaches and trainers at Swimming Canada, who expected her to be on track to be a medallist in Japan, not Brazil. The sudden success came with challenges, and Oleksiak's formed dipped between Olympics. She switched coaches and spent more than a year away from the national swim program.

Her success was “something no one was really expecting and it was weird to deal with for the first time,” she told Postmedia before Tokyo. “I guess I am mentally strong enough, because here I am now. But it was definitely a really tough time over the last five years.”

Oleksiak and her swim teammates have medal chances still to come, including in Sunday's relays.