Canada's Oleksiak Withdraws From Worlds Over Whereabouts Case

Penny Oleksiak, Canada's most decorated female Olympian, has withdrawn from the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore due to a pending whereabouts case under World Aquatics' anti-doping code. Oleksiak emphasized that the case does not involve any banned substances but concerns whether she updated her whereabouts information correctly, an administrative requirement for elite athletes to enable random doping tests. Swimming Canada supports her decision, believing she is a clean athlete who made an inadvertent administrative mistake and noting that competing could potentially affect team results if a violation is later confirmed. The whereabouts rule requires athletes in the Registered Testing Pool to keep their location information accurate and up-to-date, with penalties including possible suspensions after multiple failures to comply. Oleksiak, who has won seven Olympic medals and recently moved her training base to Los Angeles, is taking a team-first stance by withdrawing while the case is still in preliminary stages. Similar whereabouts cases have affected other top athletes, highlighting the strictness of anti-doping regulations beyond substance use.