Canadian swim star Penny Oleksiak recently had surgery for a torn meniscus.
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The 20-year-old seven-time Olympic medalist – a national record – made the announcement on her Instagram account on Wednesday morning.
Oleksiak says he sustained the injury, a vertical “bucket handle” tear, in Orlando. She returned to Toronto that same week to go under the knife at Women’s College Hospital. The surgery went well but she now expects a lot of time away from the pool.
“The rehab process is probably the longest and most uncertain I’ve faced, but I’m really looking forward to using this time to properly recover and get stronger,” Oleksiak wrote alongside the photos she shared in the Show wheelchair.
This is the Torontonian’s first operation, she revealed. She falls at an awkward time, as she was due to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in September to raise funds to fight hunger, she had hinted in another publication a week earlier.
This season, Oleksiak has won two silvers and one bronze at the FINA World Championships, but skipped the Commonwealth Games to focus on the 2023 and 2024 Paris Olympics.