Olympic champion Penny Oleksiak will not compete in Canada’s 2023 World Championship Trials, according to a CBC report. Oleksiak will not compete at the meet as she is still recovering and rehabilitating from her knee surgery in the summer of 2022.
Oleksiak said: “I’m working hard right now to prioritize my recovery. Unfortunately, I’m not ready to do my best in Trials yet.”
The meeting will take place from March 28th to April 2nd, 2023 and will be used to select the teams for the 2023 World Championships and the 2023 World Para Swimming Championships. It’s not clear yet if Oleksiak will have an opportunity to qualify for the meet at a later date once she’s back in the competition pool ahead of the Worlds in July.
Oleksiak has represented Canada in almost every major international competition since the 2016 Olympics, when she won a gold medal in the 100 freestyle. Most recently, Oleksiak swam at the 2022 World Championships in Budapest, where she placed 4th in the 100 freestyle (52.98). She also won a silver medal in the 4×100 freestyle and bronze in the 4×200 freestyle and 4×100 medley relay.
At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Oleksiak became Canada’s most decorated Olympian in history. There she won 200 freestyle bronze, 4×100 freestyle silver and 4×100 medley bronze. That earned her two total 7 Olympic medals after winning four in Rio five years earlier.
Earlier this year, Oleksiak competed in the Fort Lauderdale Pro Swim Series and the Knoxville Pro Swim Series, but she scraped all of her races at both meetings, likely for the same reason as her absence from the Trials.
In Oleksiak’s absence there will be plenty of Canadian stars to keep an eye on at the trials later this month. World Championship medalists like Kylie Masse, Taylor Ruck, Summer McIntosh, Josh Liendo, Javier Acevedo and many more will all be competing for a spot on the team this summer.
