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Penny Oleksiak is Canada’s most-decorated female Olympian, with seven medals.Ian MacNicol/Getty Images
Swimmer Penny Oleksiak says the two-year ban she received from World Aquatics under anti-doping protocols was the result of a handful of administrative errors she made over a period of nine months rather than failed drug tests, and she has apologized to Canadians who were disappointed by the turn of events.
Oleksiak was suspended from competitive swimming until July 14, 2027, after a series of what are known as “whereabouts failures,” related to testing outside of competition periods.
“I’m sorry that this happened,” she told CBC’s Devin Heroux in an interview posted online Tuesday morning. “It wasn’t something I ever wanted to happen. It wasn’t something I ever expected to happen.”
Penny Oleksiak banned from swimming competitions for two years
Top-tier athletes such as Oleksiak who are on a list maintained by World Aquatics are required to inform the International Testing Agency each calendar quarter where they will be on a daily basis and provide a specific 60-minute daily window when they can be tested without advance notice.
They must include detailed personal itineraries outlining their training, work and other activities, plus travel schedules and accommodations. Athletes are able to update their information if their schedule changes.
“Genuine mistake is really all I can really chalk it up to,” Oleksiak said. “At the same time, it is frustrating, knowing that I have that responsibility and that I wasn’t able to, to the standard that I normally would.”
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Penny Oleksiak during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in July, 2021.FRANCOIS-XAVIER MARIT/Getty Images
Oleksiak told Heroux that she has always been a clean athlete.
“I get tested very, very often throughout a season,” she noted. “They show up at your house to do blood work, and urine tests, and everything, and in between those three tests that I missed, I was being tested on various occasions, whether at meets or at home. It’s never been me to do performance-enhancing drugs or even think about doing performance-enhancing drugs. Like, I’ve been always a clean athlete my whole career, and it’s something I’ve always, like, very, very strongly believed in.”
Oleksiak’s three violations relate to missed tests from October, 2024, to June, 2025. She told Heroux that one of the occasions was in February, 2025, when she decided to train in the morning instead of the afternoon, and she was not present when testers showed up to take samples. She said she wasn’t certain after that second incident that it had officially been counted as a whereabouts violation until she received the third violation notice.
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“After I had missed my second test, I hadn’t had a concrete answer on if it was a missed test or not, until after I missed my third one. So, at that point it was kind of like, I got both of them at the same time … because there’s a bit of a waiting period from when you have the test, and when you have to report about it, and tell them what happened.”
She said the third occasion stemmed from being at a different location than she had said she would be, owing to a work obligation. Oleksiak told Heroux that she has made it a priority to work for sponsors in order to support her swimming career.
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Penny Oleksiak’s three violations relate to missed tests from October, 2024 to June, 2025.Melissa Tait/The Globe and Mail
The suspension means Oleksiak is banned from training with anyone accredited by World Aquatics – her fellow swimmers or coaches, or other support staff – or even using facilities such as pools or training centres maintained by national sport organizations such as Swimming Canada.
She acknowledged that, after receiving news of the ban, she considered retiring from swimming. “There was a part of me even that was, like, ‘Should I just call it?’ You know, ‘Is this my sign to just end it here and go find something else to do?’”
Returning to international competition after the suspension would be a significant challenge for Oleksiak, whose last international medal wins came in the 2024 World Swimming Championships. Her suspension would expire prior to the 2027 World Aquatics Championships, but she would miss the opportunity to qualify for the meet. That would leave little runway if she hoped to swim in her fourth Olympics, the 2028 Los Angeles Games, when she will be 28 years old.
But Oleksiak, who is tied with Andre De Grasse as Canada’s most-decorated Olympian with seven medals, pledged to return for L.A. 2028. “I’m so excited to be able to show Canadians, and even the world, where I really am at. I am at the best point in my career, while still being at the worst point in my career, essentially, and all I can do is just get stronger, get faster, and that’s all I’m really striving towards at this point.”
