From mall to medalist, Penny Oleksiak's first Olympics off to swimming start

RIO DE JANEIRO - Back in April, a Toronto 15-year-old was facing the biggest swim of her young life at the national Olympic Trials, and on the afternoon of the race she did what most 15-year-olds do. She went to the mall. Hung out with her friends. Laughed. Played with her phone, maybe even sauced herself some follows, as her Twitter account puts it.

Saturday night, the same Penny Oleksiak stood on the podium at the Olympic Games, bowed down her head and had a medal draped over her neck.

The spring night, when she finished off qualifying for four Olympic events, was “insane,” she said. This was “surreal” - the same thing everyone else older and facing up to sporting success says. Indulge her. After blowing out the candles in June she’s now at the ripe young age of 16, and how sweet is that? As the baby sister of NHLer Jamie Oleksiak, she comes from good sports genes and her future appears almost limitless, beginning with tonight’s 100m butterfly final and on to two more events at this Games.

The goal on this stage of course is medals, of course, but the truth is the journey is hard and it unfolds in this sudden nova only in the rarest of cases. It involves early morning practices, full-time dedication and the finest of tuning. At the Olympic level, it requires a breakthrough.

At Rio’s Barra Olympic Park, Oleksiak powered through. Announced herself. She arrived, turning Canadian teammate Michelle Williams into an emotional wreck poolside with every stroke.

“Penny’s last 25, I haven’t screamed that hard in my life,” said Williams. “So many emotions barreling through. And then when she touched - I just started crying.”

The Canadians finished behind the Australians, who won the race in a world-record 3 minutes, 30.65 seconds, and the Americans.

Oleksiak’s touch and the no less estimable contributions of her 4x100 relay partners Sandrine Mainville, Chantal van Landeghem, and Taylor Ruck - “these beautiful fast demons,” in van Landeghem's phrasing, all of them training together at Toronto’s 2015 Pan Am Games pool - grabbed Canada’s first bronze medal in the event in 40 years, a span that includes at least two known state-sponsored factory doping schemes finishing in front of their Maple Leaf forebears.

[Related: Alison Oleksiak gives her thoughts on raising an Olympian]

That was then, this is now. It may well be wow, too, and sooner rather than later for this youthful Canadian squad, as Oleksiak is merely one of many. Eighteen-year-old Emily Overholt finished a creditable fifth Saturday in the 400-metre individual medley final, beaten back by a world record-smashing swim from Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu. There are more sprites to come, Oleksiak promised, and indeed Canada has four more teenagers of promise and a few more than that barely into their twenties to throw into the water this week for their Olympic baptism.

“No one really expected this of Canada coming into the meet,” Oleksiak said. “Now that we’re here, people are going to be surprised at what we can do.”

At least in her case, the word is out after Saturday's long day’s journey into night. In the afternoon heats of her 100-metre butterfly discipline, she set a world junior record. An hour before the relay, she qualified fifth best, having backed off her earlier time in the day, for the 100m fly final. Then came the podium finish.

A perfect match for Rio and the glittering new facility housing Olympic swimming, she was fashionably late each time out, displaying a devastating finishing kick that has in her quick ascent has become the signature move. Better get used to this, Canada. She ain’t going away any time soon. That goes for the pool, and perhaps even the mall.