Tokyo, Japan – Penny Oleksiak decided what she wanted for her teammates then went out and got it.

Oleksiak outbattled American Simone Manuel down the stretch to win silver in the women’s 4×100-metre freestyle relay and give Canada its first medal of the Tokyo Olympic Games Sunday morning (Saturday evening in Canada) at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

Canada was fourth when Oleksiak (HPC-Ontario/Toronto, ON) entered the water but she swam a blazing 52.26 seconds as Canada finished second in three minutes, 32.78 seconds.

“I knew I wasn’t going to touch third,” said Oleksiak, 21, who now has five medals in just two Olympics, leaving her tied for the most for a Canadian as Summer Games.

“When I make a decision in a race, I have to execute it. I wanted a silver medal for these girls and wouldn’t accept anything else.”

Australia won gold in a world record time of 3:29.69 while the U.S. took bronze in 3:32.81.

Olympic rookie Maggie Mac Neil (HPC-Ontario/London, ON) did double duty on the first day swimming medals were awarded at the Games, which were delayed a year due to COVID-19. She swam the second leg of the relay in 53.47 seconds and also put herself in position for a podium by qualifying for the final of the 100-m butterfly.

Kayla Sanchez (HPC-Ontario/Scarborough, Ont) and Rebecca Smith (HPC-Ontario/Red Deer, AB) both won medals in their first events in their first Olympics. Taylor Ruck (HPC-Ontario/Kelowna, BC) was part of the team that finished third in the preliminaries in a time of 3:33.72.

Sanchez swam two personal best times leading off the team. She was clocked in 53.45 in the preliminaries then lowered that to 53.42 in the final.

“It’s a lot of pressure,” Sanchez said about swimming leadoff. “I could choose to let it affect me or I can choose to step up and do what I needed to do for these girls.

“It’s a really emotional moment. I can’t believe it. I’m super happy for everyone.”

Smith swam 53.63 in the final.

Ruck and Oleksiak were part of the 4×100-m relay team that finished third at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Smith had a front-row seat to watch Oleksiak battle Manuel.

“I was screaming so loud,” she said. “She finished so great. I’m just so proud to be part of this team.

“It’s day one. We have so much more to give.”

Ben Titley, who coaches the relay swimmers at the Ontario centre, said winning a medal on the opening night of the Tokyo Games comes in much different circumstances than Rio. The swimmers have seen their training disrupted and personal lives impacted while dealing with COVID.

“Getting that result wasn’t easy,” Titley said. “That was hard. I knew what went into it.

“For them staying in the moment each day and working together as a group . . . that’s something special. Building something with your friends and doing it when the pressure is on and the lights are the brightest, that’s the things that differentiate champions.”

John Atkinson, Swimming Canada’s high performance director and national coach, said the medal was a product of support from Own the Podium, Sport Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee.

“This meet is nine days,” said Atkinson. “We’ve got seven more final sessions to go. Everybody (has) to keep doing the right things, focus on what they need to do to be ready to swim as fast on day nine as you were on day one.”

Earlier Mac Neil swam 56.56 seconds to finish third in her heat in the butterfly semifinal. The reigning world champion heads into Monday morning’s final (Sunday evening in Canada) with the sixth fastest time.

Mac Neil managed to keep enough in the tank to help put the relay team on the podium.

“I know from experience my second swim is usually better because I kind of been warned up,” she said. “I was really looking forward just having these girls with me and it definitely gave me the extra boost of energy.”

Katerine Savard (Club Aquatique Montreal/Pont-Rouge, QC), also advanced to the butterfly semifinal. She swam 58.10 seconds to finish eighth and placed 16th overall.

Savard had reached the semifinal by swimming 57.51, her fastest time since 2015, in the quarter-final heats.

“I don’t know yet what mistakes I made,” said Savard. “I didn’t expect to get into the semifinal so I wanted to enjoy the moment as much as possible, but I would have liked to do a bit better.”

Savard’s next even tis the 4×200-m freestyle relay.

In other results, Tessa Cieplucha (Markham Aquatic Club/Georgetown, ON) finished 14th in the 400-m individual medley in 4:44.54 while Gabe Mastromatteo (Kenora Swimming Sharks/Kenora, ON) placed 38th in the 100-m breaststroke in 1:01.56.

Oleksiak won four medals in Rio, including tying Manuel for the gold medal in the 100-m freestyle. She admitted to being fired up to face her rival again.

“There was a lot of swearing before the race from me, yelling at the girls, on the (starting) block, yelling at myself,” she said.

“You saw us both on the ropes the last 25 metres.”

Sanchez said besides the swimmers, the entire Canadian Olympic team can feed of the energy of the first medal.

“The girls in Rio set the culture,” she said. “It gets everyone on a high for the rest of the meet. Hopefully it gets everyone in the right mindset.”

Oleksiak’s five medals leaves her tied with Phil Edwards, who won five bronze in running over three Games beginning in 1928 and rower Lesley Thompson-Willie, who won a gold, three silver and a bronze in five Games started in 1984.

Full schedule and results: https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/olympic-games/en/results/swimming/olympic-schedule-and-results-date=2021-07-24.htm