Canada’s seven-time Olympic medallist banned for two years

Canada’s most decorated Olympian, swimmer Penny Oleksiak, has accepted a two-year ban from competing following an anti-doping rule violation.

The International Testing Agency (ITA) announced on Tuesday that Oleksiak committed three “whereabout failures” over 12 months. Athletes are required to provide daily location details and a specific one-hour testing window to allow officials to conduct out-of-competition drug tests.

The Toronto-born swimmer is a seven-time Olympic medallist. She shot to national prominence at the Rio 2016 Games, becoming Canada’s youngest Olympic champion at age 16.

The 25-year-old athlete can return to competition in July 2027.

“While we accept Penny’s explanation these were inadvertent errors and she has not used banned substances, anti-doping regulations are in place to ensure a level playing field for all athletes,” Swimming Canada chief executive officer Suzanne Paulins said in a statement.

“We will miss Penny on the national team and hope to see her back in the pool when she is eligible.”

The ITA said it notified Oleksiak of the whereabouts case in July. She then withdrew from the world aquatics championships and accepted a voluntary provisional suspension.

At the time, she stressed that the case did “not involve any banned substance” and that she had always been a clean athlete.

The two-year suspension from swimming leaves open the possibility that Oleksiak could compete at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.