Penny Oleksiak’s Two-Year Ban Due to Administrative Errors

Swimmer Penny Oleksiak says the two-year ban she received from World Aquatics under anti-doping protocols was the result of a handful of administrative errors she made over a period of nine months rather than failed drug tests, and she has apologized to Canadians who were disappointed by the turn of events.

Oleksiak was suspended from competitive swimming until July 14, 2027, after a series of what are known as “whereabouts failures,” related to testing outside of competition periods.

“I’m sorry that this happened,” she told CBC’s Devin Heroux in an interview posted online Tuesday morning. “It wasn’t something I ever wanted to happen. It wasn’t something I ever expected to happen.”

Penny Oleksiak banned from swimming competitions for two years

Top-tier athletes such as Oleksiak who are on a list maintained by World Aquatics are required to inform the International Testing Agency each calendar quarter where they will be on a daily basis and provide a specific 60-minute daily window when they can be tested without advance notice.

They must include detailed personal itineraries outlining thier training, work and other activities, plus travel schedules and accommodations.Athletes are able to update their information if their schedule changes.

“Genuine mistake is really all I can really chalk it up to,” Oleksiak said. “Simultaneously occurring,it is indeed frustrating,knowing that I have that obligation and that I wasn’t able to,to the standard that I normally would.”

Oleksiak told Heroux that she has always been a clean athlete.

“I get tested very, very often throughout a season,” she noted. “They show up at your house to do blood work, and urine tests, and everything, and in between those three t