'I really tried to bring it home and I did my best bringing it home, and if I got fourth I got fourth.'
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TOKYO • Penny Oleksiak finished fourth in her signature event on Friday morning at Tokyo 2020, pushing back her quest to break the Canadian record for career Olympic medals.
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Oleksiak finished in a time of 52.59 in the 100-metre freestyle, just seventh 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’s time set a new personal best and Canadian record.
Olesksiak said she was disappointed to miss the podium, but has to be happy with a swim that was the fourth-fastest time ever. She was a little slow off the start and in the opening stretch, and had too much ground to close despite her usual finishing kick.
“I knew on my turn, it wasn’t my best turn, and I was a little bit frustrated with that, but I really tried to bring it home and I did my best bringing it home, and if I got fourth I got fourth,” she said. “That’s still fourth in the world, so I’m not really complaining.”
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She also noted the field was blazing fast: “It just shows that the women in the 100 free are really moving forward, and it’s getting a lot faster out here, and it makes me excited to race in ‘24 and just kind of figure out the race a little bit more, see how I can get into the 51s, because in ‘24 the whole final could be 51s for all we know.
Oleksiak was swimming for her third medal at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, coming after a relay silver medal 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 in the pool including a gold in the 100-metre freestyle at just 16 years old.
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Oleksiak said the possibility of becoming the first Canadian to earn seven Olympic medals was “in the back of her mind,” but it has not been something she feels considerable pressure over.
“I don’t know, I have six Olympic medals. There’s only three people in Canada who can say that,” she said. “So I’m not too concerned. If I have six Olympic medals, I have six Olympic medals. Whatever.”
Oleksiak’s performance in Rio 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 its challenges, and Oleksiak’s formed dipped in between Olympics. She switched coaches and spent more than a year away from the national swim program and did not approach her times from Rio despite reaching what is generally a more competitive age.
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Her success was “something no one was really expecting and it was weird to deal with for the first time,” she told Postmedia’s Rob Longley 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.”
Team Canada’s medal total remains at 11 for Tokyo 2020, with the women’s eight rowers collecting a gold earlier on Friday. The team has won at least one medal on every day of competition so far, other than the first day they were handed out, last Saturday. It’s a sharp turn from the summer Games of the distant past at which Team Canada often went several days without putting a medal on the board.
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Oleksiak and her swim teammates have medal chances still to come, including in Sunday’s relays.
She said the busy schedule this week, with heats and races almost every day, had not worn her out, and she credited the physio team for getting her ready to go again.
“I definitely think I had an optimal recovery, and I think it’s just a matter of figuring out the race and figuring out what I could have done better,” she said.
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Penny Oleksiak just missed podium in blazing fast 100-meter freestyle final - National Post
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