Penny Oleksiak's days of flying under the radar are long gone but the Canadian swimming sensation has grown more comfortable with her fame ahead of the Tokyo Games where she has a shot at becoming her nation's most decorated Olympian of all-time.
"I struggled with having 'Olympic champion' attached to my name at swim meets. It was almost scary for me to go up and race," Oleksiak told Reuters in a video interview."But now it's more motivating to me. In 2018, Oleksiak, competing with a heavy heart days after her grandmother's death, left the Commonwealth Games without a medal in an individual event and skipped that year's Pan Pacific Swimming Championships to enjoy some time away from the pool.
Oleksiak's back-end speed was on full display during the Rio 100m freestyle final where she was in seventh place at the turn and nearly a full second off the lead but dug deep to pull off a relentless and unforgettable comeback. Oleksiak is among the six swimmers named early to Canada's Olympic team ahead of the national trials which have been postponed until May because of COVID-19.
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