Oleksiak leads host Canadian team into world short-course swim championship

OTTAWA — Olympic champion Penny Oleksiak headlines the host Canadian team for the world short-course swimming championship in Windsor, Ont.

The quadruple medallist in Rio will be joined by backstroke bronze medallists Hilary Caldwell of White Rock, B.C., and Kylie Masse of Windsor in the meet Dec. 6-11.

The first short-course world championship held in Canada will be held in specially constructed 25-metre pool at the WFCU Centre, which is the home of the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires. The pool in Rio was 50 metres long.

Ryan Mallette, who is the head coach at the Victoria high-performance centre, will oversee Canada’s 33-swimmer team in Windsor.

“We’re trying to normalize success and I think we’ve done a really good job of that at the Olympics,” the 36-year-old said in a statement released Friday by Swimming Canada.

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“We talked about how no one was overwhelmed. For everyone to come in and succeed was normal and that’s what we want to continue forward into the next quad.”

Canada’s women won six medals in the pool in Rio with Oleksiak in on four of them.

The 16-year-old from Toronto won 100-metre freestyle gold, 100-metre butterfly silver and swam the anchor leg on both freestyle relays teams that took bronze.

The Canadian Press