Penny Oleksiak, Canada’s most decorated female Olympic athlete, has been suspended from swimming competitions for two years for violating antidoping testing rules.
The violation does not involve a positive test for using performance-enhancing drugs, but rather stems from Ms. Oleksiak’s failure to make herself available to be tested, according to the International Testing Agency, a Swiss nonprofit that manages antidoping programs.
Ms. Oleksiak, 25, failed to report her location and availability to be tested by antidoping authorities three times over a 12-month period.
Under the requirement, known as the whereabouts rule, athletes who compete at the national and international level must report their location and provide a 60-minute time window when they will be available for random testing.
“This matter is not related to drug use,” Phoebe Balshin, a spokeswoman for Ms. Oleksiak, said in an email. “Penny is and has always been a clean athlete. She remains committed to her goals and looks forward to competing again once her suspension is complete.”
Ms. Oleksiak is a celebrated Canadian athlete who captured the country’s attention as its youngest-ever Olympic gold medalist. She won four medals at her Olympic debut, when she was 16, at the games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
She went from being an unknown to a national treasure, regularly appearing in media interviews and drawing intense interest in her personal life among Canadians. (Her brother, Jamie Oleksiak, plays in the National Hockey League.)
The International Testing Agency manages various antidoping programs; in this case, it was doing so on behalf of World Aquatics, the governing body for international water sports competitions.
The agency said that Ms. Oleksiak failed to meet the whereabouts requirement three times between October 2024 and June 2025. She accepted a voluntary suspension from competition in July while the matter was under review.
She agreed to the two-year ban on Tuesday. It was not clear if she would appeal the decision with the sport’s arbitration court.
Ms. Oleksiak is suspended from competing until July 14, 2027, one year before the start of the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Representatives from Swimming Canada, the national water sports organization, did not respond to requests for comment.
Elite athletes are required to participate in what is known as a registered testing pool and must report their whereabouts in a database, said Jean-François Naud, the scientific leader of the Doping Control Laboratory in Laval, Quebec, Canada’s only antidoping testing laboratory.
It is one of 29 such labs around the world accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which is based in Montreal.
The whereabouts information that athletes must provide is very detailed and includes temporary addresses, including hotels, for overnight stays, Dr. Naud said.
Ensuring athletes abide by the rule is crucial to preventing doping, he said, adding that rigorous testing requirements can have a “deterrence effect.”
Vjosa Isai is a reporter and researcher for The Times based in Toronto, where she covers news from across Canada.
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