Noted Drake fan Penny Oleksiak receives special message from Drake

Toronto’s Penny Oleksiak has been Canada’s star of the Rio Olympic Games, winning four medals in the pool — including gold in the 100-metre freestyle — and winning the hearts of people across the nation.

Her four medals make her the most decorated Canadian Olympian at a single Games, and as such, she has has gained thousands of new fans during her Olympic campaign.

She can now count Drake as one of them too.

It’s well known by now that Canada’s 16-year-old swimming phenom is a huge fan of the Toronto rapper, tweeting photos of her and her teammate listening to his music ahead of races and lamenting online when she couldn’t get tickets to his upcoming October concert in Toronto (more on that later).

But now Drake is making it known that he's a big fan of Oleksiak too.

Late Friday night, it appeared the rapper followed @typicalpen aka Penny Oleksiak on Instagram. The news prompted the young swimmer to become overwhelmed with emotion. “This is literally amazing @Drake I'm crying,” she tweeted.

Then early Saturday morning, ahead of Oleksiak’s final race in Rio in the women’s 4x100m medley relay in the evening, Drake posted a photo of the Canadian swimmer on his own Instagram account, and wrote her a personal message.

“OVOPenny aka @typicalpen we are so proud of you!!!! Can’t wait to see you when you are back from Rio at a show!” the rapper wrote below a photo of Oleksiak posing in front of a pool, wearing a red ‘Canada’ t-shirt.

Since Oleksiak revealed earlier in the week that she was unable to obtain tickets to the Drake concert, a campaign began to try to get Oleksiak to the concert.

Many took to social media to try and entice Drake to invite Oleksiak to his concert.

Eventually Toronto’s mayor John Tory, radio stations, entertainment companies and even Drake’s inner circle got involved, and before we knew it, Oleksiak had many offering her tickets, including it seems Drake himself.

There are, however, strict NCAA eligibility restrictions that may prevent Oleksiak to accept free tickets, if she were to decide to attend a U.S. college. TSN’s Rick Westhead spoke to experts such as Matt Mitten, the director of the National Sports Law Institute at Marquette University Law School, who said, "The NCAA has stringent restrictions on the receipt of extra benefits or preferential treatment based on one's athletic ability or fame, which apply to even future NCAA athletes."

Oleksiak — possibly aware of NCAA rules — responded to a tweet from Yahoo Sports Canada, saying she had "Yet to accept anything so far but feeling so blessed!"

Whether Oleksiak is among the other thousands of Drake fans in October remains to be seen, but she can at least count Drake as a fan of hers.