Like most people her age, Penny Oleksiak is into social media.
Her Instagram handle is @typicalpen and, in person, she matches her digital billing.
When she walks into CBC’s Toronto studios for an interview prior to leaving for the FINA World Aquatics Championships in Hungary, where swimming competition opens Sunday, Penny comes across like any other 17-year-old.
She’s a bit quiet, kind of shy and easy to smile — in a nervous sort of way. It seems Penny hasn’t quite yet mastered being the centre of everyone’s attention.
“It’s outside of my home, where people don’t know me, that things become different,” she explains.
“It all happened so fast that at first I was super overwhelmed by it. Now it’s not that weird when someone comes up to me in Shopper’s Drug Mart and asks me for an autograph. Having little girls send me mail with drawings and tell me that I’m their hero I think is super cute.”
Penny’s a bit of a paradox. At first glance, she’s your average, affable teenager. But she’s also anything but ordinary.
The first person born in this millennium to win an Olympic gold medal, she burst onto the international swimming scene in Rio last summer, emerging as one of her sport’s brightest stars.
That will happen when you become the first Canadian to win four medals at a single edition of the Summer Olympics, set record times, claim world championship titles, and are anointed Canada’s Athlete of the Year, Female Athlete of the Year and leader of the Team of the Year.
Now Penny is in Europe getting ready for the world championships, which many observers claim will tell us whether or not the youngest Olympic champion in Canada’s history is the real deal or not.
“Suddenly she’s no longer a 17-year-old kid… she’s a story,” says her screenwriter dad, Richard Oleksiak, over coffee the other morning.
“And the story has risen up and taken over the entire family. Hopefully it’s not the end but instead part of the process. The story has no pre-determined conclusion but it seems so many people are anxious to put an end on the story, be it success or failure. Maybe we should all just let it unfold.”
‘We had to get some help’
Penny Oleksiak has become a household name in Canada.
She’s been in parades, sat courtside at Raptors games, presented screen awards, and even been shouted out by the universally adored rapper Drake because of her exploits at the Olympics.
Richard, left, and Penny Oleksiak pose for a picture at CBC’s Toronto studios. (Scott Russell/CBC)
There is an endorsement deal with a big athletic shoe company and she has an agreement with a major Canadian bank as well as an international charitable organization.
But her dad sees so much more in her life that’s at least as important as the newfound celebrity.
“Penny is just Penny,” he shrugs. “She is so self-effacing. She’s a kid. She values relationships. She values her friends. She wants to finish school and she has a cat. This swimming is not an obsession for her yet, and I hope it doesn’t become one.”
It’s interesting to get that perspective from a father who’s looking out for the best interests of a child, because the demands on his daughter’s time are skyrocketing.
An agent has been brought on to work out contractual agreements, and recently the Oleksiak family hired a publicity professional to manage the increasing number of opportunities that have come Penny’s way.
“To be truthful, half of her time is now dealing with appearance requests,” Richard winces. “This all came at us so fast that we had to get some help.”
Oleksiak will try to follow up her stunning Olympic performance with a big showing at the world championships. (Lucas Oleniuk/Toronto Star/Getty)
‘Failure is always a possibility’
Perhaps the toughest thing to come to grips with is the evolution of Penny’s story and the way others are trying to shape it.
Expectations are enormously high and the word “phenom” is being liberally attached to Penny’s name. Some are already speculating that she may have trouble living up to those expectations, and they’re making comparisons to stars of the past who enjoyed only fleeting success before falling suddenly and permanently to earth.
For this, Penny has an answer.
“I’m just excited to go and race,” she says without hesitation. “If I’m not feeling I’m moving forward, I’m trying to figure out the ways to get there. As long as I know I’m trying my best, then I’m happy with what I do.”
Her father couldn’t agree more.
“Failure is always a possibility,” Richard readily concedes. “But as far as I’m concerned, as long as she does her best, then that’s not failure. She’s talented but she works tremendously hard. We can’t comprehend how incredibly hard she works.”
That means six days a week being at the pool at seven in the morning, swimming for two hours and then hitting the weight room before school begins. Then it’s back to the pool by four until seven in the evening. Then there’s homework, friends, international travel for competitions and all the other requests which need to cram themselves into the one day off Penny has each week.
You can’t blame her family for watching out for her and, at times, applying the brakes on her escalating career.
“Sport is largely about myth. But that myth is easy to corrupt,” Richard stresses. “I feel it’s my responsibility to protect her from negative influences and people who want to prematurely write the end to her story.”
‘Just a kid’
There is so much that is typical about Penny. She lives down the street from where her dad and I had that cup of coffee and talked the other day.
Penny is a star now, but she’s trying to stay focused on being herself. (Scott Russell/CBC)
She first learned to swim at a pool by the beach, which is just around the corner.
“I can’t tell you how much I love the Raptors,” she gushes whenever she’s asked.
But Penny is also extraordinary and has already proven that to be the case on several occasions.
The rest of her story is up to her to write.
“She’s just a kid,” Richard concludes. “Beyond her own success it’s the success of the team that matters most to her. She’s committed to that proposition. She feels a responsibility to her sport but I hope she has fun with it. You only go this way once.”
Maybe Penny’s like any other rare treasure we’re fortunate enough to uncover.
It could be she just needs the chance to shine in her own good time.
