Drake tells Penny Oleksiak ‘see you at the show’
It's been quite the summer for the 16-year-old swimmer — her prayers to attend Drake’s Summer Sixteen concert were answers by the "6 God."
Break out the champagne; Penny Oleksiak has some celebrating to do.
No, not the champagne of the alcoholic beverage variety: that’s still off-limits for the 16-year-old swimmer from Toronto, who on Saturday morning counted one gold, one silver and two bronze Olympic medals among her most prized possessions after a staggering week in Rio.
It’s Champagne Papi, also known as Toronto rapper Drake, the millennial made clear she wanted to fête her wins with, specifically at his concert in their shared hometown in October.
On Saturday, the rap superstar made it clear the party was on, when a picture of Oleksiak was posted on his official Instagram page — handle: @champagnepapi — accompanied by a shout-out to the teenager.
“OVOPenny aka @typicalpen we are so proud of you!!!! Can’t wait to see you when you are back from Rio at a show!” it said.
Oleksiak responded nearly immediately on Twitter, retweeting a post from CBC Olympics about the shout-out with the simple caption, “Yes this moment…” and three angel face emojis.
It’s not the first time two of Toronto’s biggest stars have connected on social media.
On Friday, the rapper followed the swimmer on Twitter. It prompted a similar reaction from the swimmer.
“This is literally amazing @Drake I’m crying #startedfromthebottom”, Oleksiak tweeted about the follow. Naturally, she incorporated two “Face With Tears of Joy” emojis in the post.
Oleksiak initially made her Drake fandom public after she won her first individual medal of the Games, a silver in the women’s 100 metre butterfly.
After the race, she admitted to invoking blessing from a different kind of almighty before the swim.
“May or may not have prayed to the 6ix god before my race last night.. #worthit #torontopride” Oleksiak tweeted, upside-down face emoji included.
Two days later, Oleksiak lamented on Twitter that she and fellow Canadian medallist Kylie Masse has tried, and failed, to secure celebratory tickets to the concert.
“So @Kjmasse and I tried to buy @Drake tickets to celebrate.. Basically sold out #ugh #maybenexttime,” featuring another upside-down face emoji.
After she won gold in the women’s 100m freestyle Thursday, Swimming Canada Head Coach Ben Titley told the Star’s Bruce Arthur that, in keeping with Oleksiak’s stunning Olympics, she got tickets to the October concert.
It was a big deal, Arthur wrote.
“That was the most excited I’ve seen her,” says Titley, with a dry British delivery, “including winning medals.”
Oleksiak — commenting on a Yahoo Canada story that suggested she would be in violation of NCAA’s eligibility rules, a future possibility for the 16 year old, if she accepted free tickets — tweeted Friday that she had yet to accept anything but was feeling “so blessed.”
But after Saturday’s post from the rapper himself, it looks like, somehow, the ballad of Penny and Drizzy will go on.
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