Penny Oleksiak might be Canada’s Olympic golden girl right now, but at her home school in Toronto’s east end, she’s just a regular student “with a whole lot of perseverance.”

The 16-year-old swimming phenom has inspired the country winning a slate of Olympic medals in Rio. On Friday, two of her teachers at Monarch Park Collegiate glowed about the young Torontonian’s performances.

“We’re all walking about a foot taller around here,” said Bryan McAlpine, Oleksiak’s phys-ed teacher.

Oleksiak’s rise in Rio has been meteoric considering that a year ago she didn’t even qualify for the PanAm Games. The Olympics is her debut to the world stage, but McAlpine said while there were hints of her coming glory in recent months, no one really expected she’d dominate in the pool so soon.

“There was a lot of momentum leading up to the games,” he said. “We were just watching her capacity grow. We all thought, this is incredible. Maybe Tokyo.”

The phys-ed class that McAlpine teaches is a Grade 12 class. Oleksiak is only in grade 10, but was part of McAlpine’s class during the last school year, in part because it fit with her schedule.

McAlpine said it was common for Oleksiak to finish a grueling two-hour workout with her national team coach in the morning, and still make it to his phys-ed classes where every student is still expected to give it their all.

She handled the workload with grace and never complained once, McApline said.

That fits perfectly with the Oleksiak that Jenna Grzela knows. Grzela helps run the Monarch Park Collegiate swim team.

“She’s just like any regular student,” Grzela said.

At practice, she’s always very humble, Grzela said, despite the fact that “she could probably teach all of us a lot about swimming.”

Grzela said that helping Oleksiak balance her sporting life with her academic one can be a challenge, but with support from the school her teachers were able to work out a schedule that allows her to attend some classes at Monarch Park, and complete her other studies online.

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After the games are over, Oleksiak will be back at Monarch Park in September, starting grade 11.

“She’s put us in a bit of a tough spot,” McAlpine said with a chuckle. “Now we’ll have to teach her and be fans of her.”