Beach swimmer Penny Oleksiak makes Canadian Olympic history with sixth medal win

Beach swimmer Penny Oleksiak has made Canadian Olympic history.

By winning a bronze medal in the women’s 200-metre freestyle race at the Tokyo Olympic Games on the night of Tuesday, July 27 (the morning of July 28 in Japan), Oleksiak becomes the most awarded Canadian Summer Olympics athlete of all time.

With four medals to her credit from the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, and a silver in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay earlier in Tokyo, 21-year-old Oleksiak has now won six medals at the Summer Olympics.

Prior to tonight’s 200m race, Oleksiak was tied with rower Lesley Thompson-Willie and runner Phil Edwards for most Summer Olympic medals won by a Canadian athlete at five.

In tonight’s race, Oleksiak swam a time of 1:54.70 to take the bronze medal.

In her two Olympics, Oleksiak has now won a gold, a silver and two bronzes at Rio; and a silver and a bronze in Tokyo.

Thompson-Willie, 61, won medals in five different Olympic Games (silver in Los Angeles, 1984; gold in Barcelona, 1992; silver in Atlanta, 1996; bronze at Sydney, 2000; and siver in London, 2012).

Edwards competed in athletics in the 1928 Games in Amsterdam; the 1932 Games in Los Angeles; and the 1936 Games in Berlin. He won five bronze medals including one in Amsterdam; three in Los Angeles and one in Berlin.