She remains so distinctive, even now, eight years after she touched the wall and ushered in this golden age. Like so many of the greats — Phelps, Thorpe, Franklin — she looks like she was born for water — her limbs forever stretching toward that final touch, evolved somehow for a liquid world.
Long before she leapt into the pool last Saturday, in the morning session, outside the spotlight, subbing in for her younger successor as Canada’s star, Penny Oleksiak had secured her spot among the greatest athletes in Canadian Olympic history.
More than that, she has always been a Toronto star. She grew up in the Beach. She learned her craft at the Summerville outdoor pool, overlooking Lake Ontario. She inspired a generation of Toronto swimmers, from elite athletes to middle-aged splashers, to swim and dream and believe.
Oleksiak had come to Paris at the tail end of a disappointing year. She failed to qualify for any individual event at the Olympic trials, but by this spring she was finding something of her old form. When she dove over her teammate to kick off the anchor leg of the women’s 4x100-metre medley relay, she looked again like the swimmer who captured seven medals in two Games between 2016 and 2021.
The Olympic Games in Paris have been a smashing success for Canada. (Sometimes literally so, as when the women’s team overwhelmed Australia in a massive upset to reach their first ever rugby sevens final.)
On the track, the irrepressible pair of Ethan Katzberg and Camryn Rogers captured double gold in the hammer throw. Christa Deguchi became the first Canadian to ever top the podium in judo when she outlasted Korea’s Huh Mimi in a marathon final. In the pool, Toronto’s new super-teen, Summer McIntosh, established herself as one of the greatest swimmers alive, and one of Canada’s greatest-ever Olympians — at just 17 — with three golds and a silver.
(The old saying about champions never buying a drink again in their hometowns doesn’t really apply here; McIntosh can’t even legally buy one herself in Toronto until August 2025.)
And yet, there has been so much more to these Games than gold. We forget sometimes what it takes to make an Olympics, let alone medal. We can forget, too, how many Olympic moments are tiny miracles of joy and heartbreak and human performance, even some of those that don’t end on a podium.
There was Canadian skateboarder Cordano Russell, who put on a show in the men’s street final even after being eliminated, pushing himself to bigger and wilder tricks just for the thrill of the stage after falling on his initial runs. There was basketball star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander exhaling with grief on the bench in the final minutes of a quarterfinal loss, his 27 points not enough to lift Canada past France and into the medal rounds.
And then there was Oleksiak. Eight years after carrying the Canadian flag at the closing ceremonies in Rio, Oleksiak entered Paris as a role player.Â
She helped the team to a fourth-place finish in the 4x100-metre freestyle on July 27. A week later, she was scheduled to race the qualifying rounds of the 4x100-metre medley. (McIntosh, as befits her place as the team’s standout performer, was set to take Oleksiak’s spot if Canada reached the final.)
In the semifinal, Oleksiak entered the pool as the fourth and final Canadian swimmer, in second place, sandwiched between Japan’s Rikako Ikee, the leader, and American champion Kate Douglass. By the turn, she had chased down Ikee, but Douglass, the gold medallist in the 200-metre breaststroke, was with her stroke for stroke. With 25 metres to go, Douglass was out in front.
Oleksiak could have settled then. Canada would have still easily qualified for the final if she had stayed in second or even fallen to fourth. But then something remarkable and almost instantly forgotten happened.
The shelf life of an elite athlete is almost always short. The margins are so slim. The demands on the body so great. To make one Olympics is a triumph. To appear in three, as Oleksiak has, is an astonishment, in any role.
Oleksiak gave her childhood to the pool, to Canada, to us. She was an Olympic champion at 16. Now at 24, she was a veteran quite possibly at her final Games.
In the final stretch of her final race in Paris, her arms seemed to extend somehow in the water. Her strokes grew longer and stronger. She passed Douglass with less than 25 metres to go. She touched the wall first.
If this truly was her last Olympics, let the record show that Penny Oleksiak won her final race. (The team, with McIntosh swimming the anchor, took fourth in the final).
She was the upstart in Rio. In Tokyo, the leader. In Paris, she played her role. But in Toronto, she will forever be a hero. Thank you, Penny. You made your city proud. Â
Correction - Aug. 9, 2024
This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said U.S. swimmer Kate Douglass was the gold medallist in the 200-metre butterfly. In fact, she won gold in the 200-metre breaststroke.Â
