News & Articles

Teenager Penelope Oleksiak swims like a veteran in opening morning of Olympic trials

Olympic and Para-swimming Trials –

By Jim Morris

TORONTO – Teenager Penelope Oleksiak is swimming like a veteran at her first Olympic trials.

The 15-year-old from Toronto was the fastest of three women to swim under the Games’ qualifying time in the 100-m butterfly during morning heats Tuesday at the Olympic & Para-swimming Trials, presented by RBC.

The evening final promises to be fast. Oleksiak’s time of 57.38 seconds was followed closely by Noemie Thomas of Richmond, B.C., (57.60) while Katerine Savard of Pont-Rouge, Que., was third in 57.72.

The Olympic qualifying time for the event is 58.74 seconds.

The trials, which end Sunday, have attracted 762 swimmers from 187 clubs cross Canada, the United States and other parts of the world. The competition is being held at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, the same pool which hosted last year’s Pan American and Parapan Am Games.

All finals sessions will be webcast live on CBCSports.ca beginning at 6:45 p.m. ET. For full results and more information visit www.swimming.ca/trials.

In other results Richard Funk of Edmonton will take the fastest time into the men’s 100-m breaststroke final. He won the morning heats in 1:00.66. Jason Block of Calgary was second in 1:00.87 and Ashton Baumann of Ottawa third in 1:01.08.

Brittany MacLean of Toronto led the women’s 400-m freestyle in four minutes, 7.82. Kennedy Goss of Toronto finished next in 4:12.70.

Tristan Cote of Toronto had the fastest time in the men’s 400-m individual medley in 4:20.15. Luke Reilly of Richmond, B.C., was third in 4:23.18.

Jeremy Bagshaw of Victoria led the 200-m freestyle in 1:48.47. Yuri Kisil of Calgary was next in 1:49.45.

In the Para-swimming events, Aurelie Rivard, of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., took her first step toward Rio by finishing first in the multi-class women’s 50-m freestyle. The S10 swimmer was clocked in 28.46 seconds. She also swam 4:42.11 in the multi-class 400-m freestyle.

Veteran Benoit Huot of Longueuil, Que., who is looking to qualify for his fifth Paralympics, led the 400-freestyle S10 qualifiers in 4:17.62. Nathan Stein of Maple Ridge, B.C., led the 50-m S10 swimmers in 24.38.

In other notable 50-m times, S8 swimmer Morgan Bird of Calgary was timed in 31.97 seconds while Tammy Cunnington of Red Deer, Alta., was 55.18 in the S4 group. Katarina Roxon of Kippens, NL, who is celebrating her 23rd birthday, was 31.50 in the S9 group.

On the men’s side, Daniel Murphy of Bedford, N.S., swam 3:01.27 in the multi-class 200-m freestyle, shaving .25 off his own Canadian record in the S5 class. Gordie Michie of St. Thomas, Ont., had a best-time of 2:03.81 among the S14 swimmers.