Penny Oleksiak is one of the best role models in sport.
With her four medals at Rio 2016 (which included one Gold) and two at Tokyo, the Toronto, ON, native is now tied for the most decorated Canadian Olympian of all time. With one more medal, she’ll take sole possession of the title.
Last night, in the in the women's 100-metre freestyle, which is the event she won her Gold in at 16 years old, Oleksiak set both a Canadian and personal record by swimming a 52.59 seconds. It wasn’t enough to crack the podium, though, and she placed fourth in the event. Following the swim, Penny showed just why she’s such a great sport and role model with her attitude about the race. Why be sad? She placed fourth in the world at 21 years old!
Here’s what she had to say about it:
"I'm honestly kind of happy the final was so fast. It just shows that women in the 100m free are really moving forward, it makes me excited to race in 2024 and see how I can figure out the race a little more..[…].I was so nervous last night. Waking up every couple of hours thinking about it, I had to talk myself down a bit today. I'm in an Olympic final. I'm 21 years old. This isn't my last Olympics. Just learning from this."
The 21-year-old even shared this to her Instagram story, saying she definitely doesn’t need any sympathy, and a tweet sharing just how sweet this will make her bounce back.
While it would be easy for a lot of people to get frustrated, Penny’s attitude has ‘champion’ written all over it, and she still has one more chance to medal at this Olympics!
