One of Canada’s best-ever swimmers will be out of the pool until 2027.
Penny Oleksiak, Canada’s most decorated female Olympian, accepted a two-year ban on Tuesday, a result of accruing three whereabouts failures as part of anti-doping rules.
Suspended until July 2027
Oleksiak’s suspension is retroactive to July 15, 2025, and will extend to July 14, 2027.
According to a release from the Aquatics Integrity Unit, the Toronto native will have any competitive results from June 16 onward disqualified, including forfeiture of medals, points and prizes.
According to the World Anti Doping Agency’s (WADA) drug testing program, selected athletes must provide a daily 60-minute availability window, 90 days in advance, to be tested — no matter where in the world they might be.
On a quarterly basis, Registered Testing Pool athletes must provide, their address for overnight accommodations, regular activities — training, work and school, including the locations and the times of these activities — as well competition schedules with locations.
If an athlete submits “late, inaccurate or incomplete whereabouts that lead to them being unavailable for testing, (they) may receive a Filing Failure,” according to World Aquatics.
Notified in July
In July, Oleksiak was notified of the anti-doping rule violation by the International Testing Agency.
According to the ITA, the 25-year-old swimmer committed three whereabouts failures between October 2024 and June 2025.
She had been provisionally suspended before accepting the full ban on Tuesday.
Doesn’t involve ‘any banned substance’
Oleksiak has said the matter “does not involve any banned substance” and added, “I am and always have been a clean athlete and will be making no further comment at this time.”
In July, Swimming Canada CEO Suzanne Paulins said Oleksiak’s failed whereabouts information was “an administrative mistake.”
Oleksiak doesn’t seem to be taking the suspension too poorly. On Monday, she posted photos of herself on a beach getaway.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DRdRL1QkoYX/?hl=en&img_index=1
Oleksiak burst onto the Olympic scene as a teen sensation at the 2016 Summer Games in Rio deJaniero, Brazil. She won four medals at the Games, including a gold in the 100-metre freestlye and a silver in the 100-metre butterfly. She also took home two bronzes.
At the Tokyo Summer Games in 2021, Oleksiak took home two more medals, including a silver in 4×100-metre freestyle, to bring her total medal count to seven.
At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, Oleksiak struggled after recovering from knee surgery, participating in several relay races, but failing to medal.
Oleksiak would be eligible to try to qualify for the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles, but has yet to officially commit towards the big event.