Canadian Penny Oleksiak won seven Olympic medals, including one gold, two silver and four bronze. Odd Andersen / AFP via Getty Images
Swimmer Penny Oleksiak, Canada’s most decorated female Olympian with seven medals, has been suspended for two years for an anti-doping rule violation after she failed to provide her whereabouts for drug testing, the Aquatics Integrity Unit announced Tuesday.
Oleksiak did not fail a test but had three whereabouts failures within a 12-month period. Anti-doping rules require athletes to report their daily whereabouts as well as a daily 60-minute time slot when they will be available for testing.
The International Testing Agency announced in July that Oleksiak had violated the rules. At the time, the ITA said she had the right to provide explanations for the circumstances that led to the whereabouts failures. Oleksiak failed to keep her whereabouts information up to date, Swimming Canada CEO Suzanne Paulins said in July. She described it as “an administrative mistake,” according to The Canadian Press.
Oleksiak withdrew from the world championships held in Singapore beginning in late July, saying on social media that she wasn’t able to make any additional comments on her whereabouts case other than “reiterating that I am and always have been a clean athlete.”
Oleksiak’s period of ineligibility began July 15 and lasts until July 14, 2027.
The 25-year-old is one of Canada’s most popular Olympians after making her Olympic debut in 2016 at the age of 16. In Rio de Janeiro, she became the first Canadian athlete to win four medals at a single Summer Games. She was also Canada’s first female swimmer to win Olympic gold since 1984. That year she was awarded the Lou Marsh trophy, given to the country’s top athlete of the year.
In late 2022 she had surgery after tearing her meniscus and the following summer moved to Los Angeles. “Leaving was really important to me … I needed a change of scenery,” she told Olympics.com in an interview last year. She qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics despite barely racing before trials. At her third Summer Games, she swam on the 4×100 freestyle relay but was left off the team for the final. Canada finished fourth.
Nov 26, 2025
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