Canada gold medal swimmer gets bonus: Drake concert invitation

TORONTO (Reuters) – Canadian R&B artist Drake on Saturday invited compatriot four-time Olympic medalist swimmer Penny Oleksiak to one of his concerts after her tweet about lacking tickets set off a Twitter campaign to grant her attendance.

Oleksiak won her country’s first gold medal at the games in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday in a stunning showing and is the first Canadian to win four medals in a single Olympics session. She is the sister of Jamie Oleksiak, a defenseman for the National Hockey League’s Dallas Stars.

Her post about her lack of tickets spawned a hashtag “#GetPennyDrakeTickets.”

“So @Kjmasse (teammate and bronze medal winner Kylie Masse) and I tried to buy @Drake tickets to celebrate.. Basically sold out #ugh #maybenexttime,” Oleksiak tweeted on Wednesday.

Drake, who like Oleksiak hails from Toronto, responded with a picture of Oleksiak on his Instagram account, captioned: “we are so proud of you!!!! Can’t wait to see you when you are back from Rio at a show!”

The Globe and Mail newspaper, citing an anonymous source, reported Drake intended to give Oleksiak free tickets to his Toronto concert this fall.

A publicist for Drake declined to comment.

Oleksiak did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Ethan Lou in Toronto; Editing by David Gregorio)