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Penny Oleksiak Wins Canada’s First Gold!

Photo: Team Canada / Équipe Canada / Facebook

16-year-old Penny Oleksiak has won a gold medal in the 100-metre freestyle race in swimming for Canada.

Even more remarkable, she is the first Canadian to ever get four medals at a single Summer Olympic Games.

With her medal, Canada’s medal haul is now at 8 ranking 18th overall. The United States still remain first with an amazing 39 medals.

Oleksiak, a Toronto native has also won a silver medal in the 100-metre butterfly, and two bronze medals in the 4×100 and 4×200 metre freestyle relays.

Oleksiak tied with American Simone Maneul setting a new Olympic record time of 52.70 seconds.

Coming out of the halfway wall Oleksiak sat seventh, and then did the unthinkable.

“The last 15 metres, I put my head down and I bit my lip and I was just going as hard as I could,” Oleksiak said.

“This is amazing, to tie for a gold. I never thought I’d win a gold.”

Heading into her 4×100 medley relay on Saturday, Oleksiak is one medal away from tying Cindy Klassen’s record for the most hardware at an Olympic Games.

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