Canadian swimmer and Olympic gold medalist Penny Oleksiak has been banned from competition until 2027 for repeatedly failing to report her whereabouts as required under anti-doping rules, officials announced Tuesday.
The International Testing Agency (ITA) said in a statement that Oleksiak has accepted the penalty for three whereabouts failures within a 12-month period between October 2024 and June 2025.
“The athlete did not contest the (anti-doping rule violation) and agreed with the consequences proposed by the ITA. Accordingly, the case was resolved through an acceptance of consequences,” the agency said.
Phoebe Balshin, a representative for Oleksiak, told Global News in an email that the athlete would not be commenting on the case, but confirmed it did not involve drug use.
“Penny is and has always been a clean athlete. She remains committed to her goals and looks forward to competing again once her suspension is complete,” Balshin said.
According to the ITA’s statement, any competitive results Oleksiak obtained from July 16 onward will be disqualified, “including forfeiture of medals, points and prizes.” Her ban will be lifted on July 14, 2027.
A Swimming Canada spokesperson clarified to Global News that the ban would be lifted by the time the Canadian Olympic swimming trials are held in June 2028, giving Oleksiak the chance to qualify for the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles that will be held in July.
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The national swimming body said it respects the ITA’s decision.
“We are committed to the enforcement and support of all anti-doping rules as outlined in the Canadian Anti-Doping Program and through World Aquatics and the World Anti-Doping Agency,” Swimming Canada CEO Suzanne Paulins said in a statement.
“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. We will miss Penny on the national team and hope to see her back in the pool when she is eligible.”
A whereabouts case is an anti-doping rule violation that can affect an athlete’s eligibility even if they have never taken a banned substance. The World Anti-Doping Code defines a whereabouts failure as any combination of three missed tests or filing failures in a 12-month period.
Athletes who are members of the “registered testing pool,” which is the highest tier of athlete testing, are required to report an accurate and up-to-date filing of their whereabouts at all times. This is so they can be drug tested at any time and any place with no advance notice.
According to World Aquatics, if an athlete in the testing pool submits “late, inaccurate or incomplete whereabouts that lead to (them) being unavailable for testing, (they) may receive a Filing Failure.”
Oleksiak withdrew from the World Aquatics Championships in July and accepted a provisional suspension at the time.
In an Instagram post at the time that was then deleted, Oleksiak asserted “I am and always have been a clean athlete” and that the case “does not involve any banned substance; it’s about whether I updated my information correctly.”
The 25-year-old from Toronto is Canada’s most decorated female Olympian.
She has won seven Olympic medals — one gold, two silver, four bronze — over her career, becoming the first Canadian to win four medals in the same Summer Games at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
—With files from the Canadian Press
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