Olympian Penny Oleksiak has been banned from competing because she didn’t share her location
She was at the gym!
Due to an anti-doping rule violation, Olympic swimmer Penny Oleksiak has been suspended from competition for two years.
Oleksiak, who is from Toronto, is Canada’s most-decorated female Olympian, having won seven Olympic medals. She hasn’t tested positive for banned substances but reportedly failed to fulfill whereabouts requirements between October 2024 and June 2025.
Under anti-doping rules, athletes are required to be available for random testing. In order to be reachable, they must provide their daily addresses on a quarterly basis and disclose where they could be found in the event of a drug test. School, work, competition locations and even medical appointments must be entered into the Anti-Doping Administration and Management System app.
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Oleksiak reportedly did not respond to reminders to update her information, though she did continue posting on Instagram, with photos and videos showing she spent time in Mexico and Tanzania, dressed up for Halloween, and went to Coachella. Last summer, she wrote on the platform that she had withdrawn from the World Aquatics Championships but emphasized that she hadn’t taken any drugs. “I am and always will be a clean athlete,” she said, accepting a provisional suspension.
Yesterday, a two-year competition ban was announced. It will expire in July of 2027, making her eligible to compete in the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
“We accept Penny’s explanation that these were inadvertent errors and she has not used banned substances,” Swimming Canada’s chief executive officer, Suzanne Paulins, said in a statement. “We will miss Penny on the national team and hope to see her back in the pool when she is eligible.”
In June, Oleksiak posted from a hotel with the caption, “Too bad I never left my room,” and from a gym with the caption, “Imagine hating me and I’m just at the gym.” Tell it to the International Testing Agency, Penny!
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Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
